A fungus among us

[Guest guest]

Any one who has some input on this please help.(I appologize if dates

dont seem right, my mind is not remembering that far back anymore) My

family and I(2 adults and a 6yr old and 19mth old) have lived in a

house we have rented for 4 years. We have never been late on rent,

always had good relations with the landlord(family friend since

before I was born). In the summer of 05(first year we moved in)the

hot water tank in the finished basement went, pouring water into the

walls and carpet for WEEKS. The landlord finally replaced the tank

after almost 2 weeks. It was our responsiblity to wet vac the water

that would continuously soak through the carpet. He never bothered to

rip out the carpet or sheetrock. I did my best to vac all the water,

but it just saturated the carpet. I got pregnant in March of 06 and

had a miscarriage at 9 weeks in may of 06. I got pregnant again in

June of 06. The furnace then went the winter of 06. It again spewed

water throughout the basement, into the carpet and walls again. I

again was left to clean that, very pregnant and very tired. My

daughter had become sick many times that winter and was diagnosed

with Asthma, eczema and sinus/upper resp. infections. She also

complained of her L leg hurting and would wake me up crying over it.

She ended up with the " stomach bug " more times then I can count with

the nasuea and vomiting, diarreha and not wanting to eat for days at

a time. The landlord took over a month this time to fix it(we had a

space heater for 6 weeks because of no heat). The carpet and

sheetrock still sat. All along while this is happening, the roof on

the house was leaking. It created black mold on the bathroom celeing

and my daughters ceiling because they are back to back. I kilzed the

bathroom 3 times on top of bleaching it. Same with my daughters room.

In Nov of 07 I filed a report with the board of health complaining of

mold growing. The came out and inspected and sent him a compliance

letter. He has YET to comply with that original letter. He in turn

was found out to not have this house registerd as a rental property.

The mold started on the sheetrock behind the tanks, and grew to a

lovely green/black slime that COVERED the walls. My laundry is down

there so of course not knowing I would bring the kids down to do

laundry with me. My son was born healthy in march 07. Shortly after

he was born we starting have problems with his formula and had to

change him to soy because he would constantly cry, be very aggitated

and wake up numerous times at night crying for no reason(wasnt the

usual hungry, wet cry, was a pain cry). Dr said that I needed to not

be so fast to respond to him and that he was fine and needed to learn

to cry??? Needless to say, he started getting sick. He was diagnosed

with Asthma at 9 months old, and then the respitory illnesses

started. They were both in the Pediatric Dept of the hospital over a

handful of times each, and always diagnosed with respitory

infections, ear infections or the " bug " . My sons nose would run out

of nowhere and they both were put on nebulizers which did nothing for

them. I continued to complain for my daughters pain and weakness and

was told it was growing pains. A mother knows her child..that was NOT

the problem and I knew it. As for us adults the symptoms were the

same, sinus infections, respitory, headaches, nausea, IBS, loss of

appitie, hair loss, weight loss, depression, severe mood changes,

irritability. My daughter has to have an IEP plan in her school

becuase she cant sit still long enough to finish her work or focus in

school. My son has extreme outburts out of nowhere. I was recently

diagnosed with Fibromyalgia at 28yrs old. I laughed at the Dr and

said I was WAY to young to have that. She put me on meds to control

the body aches and muscle spasms that I was having. After that I

started to investigate more. We held back rent from the landlord and

again I filed another complaint with the board of health. They said

to me that it was my burden to prove mold because if they couldnt see

it, it wasnt something they could sight him on. I hired Nauset

Enviormental to come out and test my house. In my daughters room

alone the settled spore count was 2,700 and the disturbed was over

23,000. It tested positive for Penicillum and Aspergillious(sorry

about the spelling). That was an air test only in a room that the

door stays closed all day and night.(Little one not allowed in

there). The wall cavity samples are not back from the lab yet but Im

scared to see what they are. The sad thing is that the basement is

what smells like mold, and where the slimy stuff was growing and

upstairs is testing that high. My landlord has hired a lawyer and is

suing me for back rent and " damages " saying I live in a dump??? WTF.

As of right now, my children have to go to Childrens hospital in

Boston and see an enviormental specialist and also an allegry and

asthma specialist. I have had a mold antibody test done that has

taken over a week to get the results(still dont have them). So thats

the story so far, my questions are as follows: What documents do I

need to prove in court that he was negligent and caused us to become

sick. What direction should I go with testing family? What type of

lawyer should I hire to help me? What do I do with all my belongings

in the house(3 bedroom house full of stuff)? Any other info would be

wonderful! I am in despair and want to just give up but I dont want

the landlord to have the satisfaction of being done with me and not

having to fix what he has allowed to happen. I am very bitter as

someone put it and am at a dead end and dont know which way to turn.

My mind cant concentrate and remembering what happend yesterday is a

challenge. I am sorry this is so long and hope that out of it comes

some advice that I can take and run with. Thanks again everyone for

reading this. Kate in MA