Mystery illness strikes Glouco pathologist

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Posted on Fri, Jan. 29, 2010

Mystery illness strikes Glouco pathologist

By Jan Hefler

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/local/nj/20100129_Mystery_illness_stikes_Glouco_p\

athologist.html

Inquirer Staff Writer

Philadelphia Inquirer

Gerald in earns his living figuring out how people died. But why he has felt

so deathly ill in the mornings has the South Jersey medical examiner stumped.

He suspects an invisible toxin in the walls of his upscale Washington Township

house in Gloucester County. Nearly every night since June, the ordinarily

unflappable pathologist has sought relief by bedding down in a one-man tent in

the backyard.

" I'm not trying to be dramatic, " said in, 54, who has testified in numerous

murder cases in Gloucester, Camden, and Salem Counties over the last 11 years,

sometimes rendering controversial findings.

" But every time I sleep inside the house, I wake up sick as hell, and when I

sleep outside, I feel OK. Something in my house is killing me. "

in pitched his tent in the gazebo overlooking the in-ground pool. His

symptom-free wife and 16-year-old son sleep in the house, about 50 feet away.

His tiny blue cave is furnished with a space heater, a clock radio, and an

electric blanket.

The ins moved in to their 21-year-old house in the exclusive Windsor Forest

development in the township's Sewell section in 1998. For the first six years,

Gerald in was healthy.

But since the onset of his symptoms, he has felt worse and worse. When extreme

weather forces him to sleep inside or he spends too much time indoors on

weekends, he gets stomach spasms and diarrhea upon waking. It's like " a knife

twisting in my gut, " he said.

He wonders whether he has what the Environmental Protection Agency calls " sick

building syndrome. " A person's health is affected, says the agency's Web site,

but no specific illness or cause can be identified. Symptoms often subside after

the person leaves the building.

" I'm just tired of all the pain, " said in, who attended the Bowman Gray

School of Medicine at Wake Forest University in North Carolina.

He has become consumed by the quest to identify the source of his misery. He has

consulted seven doctors, including kidney and gastrointestinal specialists, who

have poked and prodded him. Most think he suffers from a rare allergy.

in has removed carpets in the house and replaced tap water with bottled. He

said he had spent nearly $10,000 on tests for mold and volatile organic

compounds in the home. All have come back negative.

His theory is that he is the victim of " very, very tiny mycotoxins, " poisons

produced from mold, that thrive between the stucco exterior of his house and the

interior walls. He said he had just paid $1,500 for a mycotoxin test on the

house.

His stown allergist blamed Dinky Little Dog, in's Chihuahua-terrier

mix. But removing the 13-year-old pet for three weeks didn't help. Dust and dust

mites also were suspected, but in said three sophisticated HEPA air filters,

including one connected to his bed pillow, had made no difference.

" It's something in the house, " in said, scratching his head. When he leaves

- on vacation, on camping trips with his son's Boy Scout troop, on stints with

the Air Force Reserve, and when he sleeps in his office - he wakes up feeling

terrific.

" I don't know if it was an old burial ground here. Maybe it's haunted. I might

need an exorcist, " he deadpanned, noting that the tomatoes in his garden

mysteriously turn to mush each summer while his neighbors produce beauties.

in said he would consider seeing a mental-health professional if he thought

his illness was psychological or stress-related. But " why would I feel better

when I'm not sleeping in the house if this were stress-related? " he asked.

His wife, Jane in, said she was " tired of battling what I don't know. "

She believes his condition is the result of spending time in their musty

basement, working on his hobbies - woodworking, cutting and polishing minerals,

and cultivating seedlings. She recalled feeling woozy and having stomach

problems a month ago after she gathered her husband's old work clothes from the

basement to launder them.

Another theory, suggested by some doctors in jest, does not sit well with the

couple.

" People make jokes about my wife poisoning me, but it's not funny, " in

huffed. " Just because I'm a medical examiner. "

Once, Jane in said, she " went berserk " and vacuumed the walls, drapes,

almost every surface - then watched as her husband's condition improved for only

a day or two.

When he sleeps in the house, in said, he usually recovers within a few hours

of rising, or at least by afternoon. He hasn't missed any work, he said.

As medical examiner for Camden, Gloucester, and Salem Counties, in performs

autopsies at Underwood-Memorial Hospital in Woodbury. But he said that on some

days he was grumpy.

Annemarie Norton, an investigator who transports the bodies, has seen that side

of him. " You can tell when he's been in his house and when he hasn't been in it

by how miserable he is, " she said.

Norton said the detectives in worked with were aware of his condition

because he told them in the hope that somebody would know someone similarly

afflicted.

People are sympathetic, Norton said, though " everybody kind of chuckles about

him sleeping in the tent. A few have said to me, 'He's joking about that,

right?' "

in's queasiness also hasn't kept him from a multitude of sports and hobbies.

He likes keeping busy, he has said, because his job reminds him that " you never

know when you might croak. "

He hasn't missed a beat with his karate and ballroom-dancing classes, his ice

hockey league, marathon bicycling, camping, fishing, cultivating orchids, and

playing guitar. But he's dropped his basement hobbies.

in said people wondered why he didn't just move. " I don't want to leave. I

love my arboreteum, " he said, showing off a display of exotic trees at the back

of his three-acre property.

Starting tonight, he plans to sleep in a rented condominium while his house and

basement are scrubbed and detoxed. A hospital-grade HVAC system also may be

installed.

Camping out in the tent produced good results, but it felt " a little spartan, "

he said.

" I feel like offering a $10,000 reward to find out what's killing me, " he said.

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Contact staff writer Jan Hefler at 856-779-3224 or jhefler@....