Los Angeles, CA | Family Affected by Toxic Mold | Dr. Avi Ishaaya Centers

Travis: Joining us now are Daniel and Stacy, and sorry you've gone through this. It's everyone's dream to move into a home with their family, and yet I'm also proud that you were able to figure out that the home was what was causing so much of this. What's been the hardest part overall?

Daniel: We lost our home, obviously, not our house, but our home. Just the terrible health symptoms and just the stress that is put on our family.

Sonia Batra: How are your children doing now? Just as a parent, I think that would be so hard to watch them to go through these symptoms.

Daniel: It is, it's really hard. They can't tell us how they're feeling, and we can only go by my tummy hurts, or my head hurts, or my heart hurts.

Travis: This is not a scenario that is uncommon. It can happen, and joining us now in the audience is Dr. Noreen Khan-Mayberry, a toxicologist and environmental scientist, and mold in the home can affect our health in so many ways.

Dr. Noreen K.M: Right, yeah. I mean, mold is actually everywhere, it's ubiquitous, meaning that we're breathing it right now, and at low levels it's absolutely harmless. But when you get higher concentrations like what you saw in the home, that's when you see all of this really bad adverse health effects. They did have several different types of mold, one of them Aspergillus Penicillium is very common, what we're breathing in now at low levels. But Stachybotrys and Chaetomium, those two only proliferate or start to grow at those kinds of levels when you've got a high moisture content in the home. And behind the walls it's like a silent invader that you don't know about because you're not seeing any visual contamination. And so you think everything's fine because it's clear, you don't see any kind of visual mold, but it's proliferating, it's getting higher and higher in concentration. The higher it gets, the more type of symptoms you get, and people who are immunocompromised and who are children or more susceptible than those who are adults. But it can absolutely affect anyone, especially at high concentrations.

Travis: After the shock of finding out that their home was filled with this toxic black mold, Stacy and Daniel, they knew their family needed help. We actually sent them to see just how badly the mold had affected their health.

Dr. Avi Ishaaya: Hey there, how are ya?

Daniel: Good.

Dr. Avi Ishaaya: Dr.Avi, how are you?

Daniel: Good. I'm Daniel, this is my wife.

Dr. Avi Ishaaya: Today I'm hoping to help the Harper family, help them identify if they have any underlying mold related issues. All right, so we're going to get you set up for the allergy testing and the breathing test. And I'll take a look at it, and as soon as I analyze and review it, I'll give you a call, we'll go over the results.

Daniel: All right, thank you doctor.

Stacie: Thank you.

Dr. Avi Ishaaya: Really deep in, and then blast it out. I need about 10 more seconds. A little bit faster. Three, two, one, exhale out.

Speaker 7: Good job.

Speaker 8: Did it hurt?

Speaker 9: It hurt less than a bird went underwater.

Dr. Mehran Khorsandi: Hi.

Stacie: Hi.

Dr. Mehran Khorsandi: It's Dr. Khorsandi.

Stacie: I'm Stacie Harper.

Dr. Mehran Khorsandi: So what brings you here, Stacie?

Stacie: We discovered that we have toxic mold in our home. I just don't feel like myself anymore.

Dr. Mehran Khorsandi: Okay, let's examine you. One more time. We're going to need to do an EKG, and we'll take it from there.

Stacie: Okay.

Travis: When we come back, we will have some answers for Stacy and Daniel, along with the results of their medical tests.` Stick around.