Re: I-Team 10 follow-up: Lung transplant needed due to moldy home

[Guest guest]

WOW, thats scary. I am wondering if this is bloth lungs or one. My grandad had

one of his lungs removed due to cancer and ended up healthier that the most of

us and lived well into his 80s before of all things ecoli would up being his

demise. (although I have mentioned before I have other suspitions)

Gosh, what a shame it has gotten to this...

From: tigerpaw2c <tigerpaw2c@...>

Subject: [] I-Team 10 follow-up: Lung transplant needed due to

moldy home

Date: Wednesday, July 2, 2008, 10:28 PM

I-Team 10 follow-up: Lung transplant needed due to moldy home

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

News 10NBC - Rochester,NY*

By: Brett sen

http://www.whec. com/article/ stories/S498225. shtml?cat= 572

Their house is condemned, they've filed for bankruptcy and now

they're on public assistance. Think things can't get worse for a

Sodus couple? Well, they have.

I-Team 10 first told you about Mark and Darlene Sovie's problems

which started when they found toxic mold in their home and tonight,

their situation has now become life or death.

" This is what my life consists of now. I'm on five inhalers,

Prednisone, and this is what I have to do every day just to breath. "

Darlene Sovie never dreamed her life would take a turn like this.

" I'm very weak. I sleep a lot. Lord knows I have trouble breathing. "

Her medical problems started when she and her husband bought a house

in 2003. When they moved in, toxic black mold was growing in places

they couldn't yet see. The house has since been condemned by the

town of Sodus.

When I-Team 10 first went into the house in March of last year, the

mold was on the walls, ceilings, and even covering the furniture.

Now, it's spread to the house's exterior as well.

But worse than that, the mold is now in Darlene's lungs. A pulmonary

specialist diagnosed her with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

and has recommended her for a lung transplant.

" It was bad enough that we ended up losing our credit trying to get

out from under this. We ended up losing all of our possessions,

that's monetary stuff. But when they said my life was on the line, I

said, that's it. "

Sovie believes that someone knew or should have known about the mold

when they bought the house. So who sold it to them? The U.S.

government did.

They bought it from HUD .and the contract states that HUD doesn't

guarantee its condition. The house is sold as is. The contract

warned them to get an engineer's inspection which they did. They had

several different inspections but none mentioned anything about mold.

" Every person involved in the purchase of this home made money on

it, whether it was their inspections or closing. "

They stopped paying on the house after determining it would cost

nearly as much to remediate the mold as the house is worth. Still,

they remain responsible for the house because the bank holding the

mortgage won't foreclose.

" It's a nightmare, an absolute nightmare. "

A nightmare that just seems to keep getting worse.

The Sovies tried to file a claim with their homeowner's insurance

carrier early on, but were denied because the mold was considered a

pre-existing condition.

They have filed for bankruptcy and are speaking with an attorney to

determine their options.