A family was left devastated and without a home after discovering their house had been slowly poisoning them for nearly three years.

In September 2021, Alexandra Campos and her husband, Jefte Campos, parents to three children, purchased their ideal home. However, by a few months in, the once ‘ecstatic’ couple from Fort Worth, Texas, found themselves frequently ill, experiencing symptoms akin to colds, respiratory issues, and intense fatigue.

Alexandra explained, ‘I was diagnosed with chronic fatigue. I felt constantly drained, my feet ached, and I couldn’t walk without wearing comfortable slippers. My hands were swollen and pained, preventing me from wearing my wedding ring.’

‘My husband was hospitalized for a week and I thought something was killing us.’

After moving in, the couple’s four-year-old daughter Maeve developed symptoms including heart palpitations, a raspy voice and flushed skin.

In 2023, she received a diagnosis of Graves’ disease, a condition that leads to excess thyroid hormone production, along with Thyroid Eye Disease, an autoimmune disorder causing swelling and discomfort around the eyes. They realized they were being poisoned by toxic mold within their own house.

Subsequently, she was also diagnosed with dysautonomia, which affects the nerves governing automatic bodily functions like heart rate, blood pressure, and digestion, causing them to malfunction.

It wasn’t until mid-2024 that they uncovered significant water damage from a concealed toilet leak, which resulted in toxic mold spreading throughout the walls and floors.

Alexandra stated, ‘We aren’t able to live there; the house is uninhabitable. Initially, we thought the damage affected just a few rooms, but it turned out it had compromised the whole house.’

Soon after buying their dream home in 2021, Fort Worth parents Alexandra and Jefte Campos began experiencing constant sickness, fatigue, and respiratory issues.

For years, the floor had begun to bubble as the glue holding the floorboards in place became unstuck due to moisture seeping through. Mold grew under the floors and within the walls of their house. 

Campos said: ‘My husband went into our crawl space and saw water, mold, moisture; it was a mess.’

Mold, a type of fungi, produces dangerous mycotoxins that, when inhaled consistently, cause cognitive impairment, mood changes, asthma-like symptoms, headaches, coughs, muscle aches and autoimmune responses.

When the body detects toxins, such as mold spores in the air, the immune system launches a massive defense, sending out a storm of inflammatory chemicals called cytokines that act like emergency alarms.

Inflammatory cytokines can travel throughout the body via the bloodstream and reach every organ system, including the endocrine system, in Maeve’s case, or in the brain, as was the case with the Campos’ six-year-old autistic son Eamon. 

He experienced inflammation in his brain that affected his speech and cognitive function. 

‘He really had more skill regression, he didn’t talk for a really long time, when he did learn a new skill he would lose skills,’ Campos said. 

Campos’ husband, meanwhile, had frequent rashes and flare-ups of a pre-existing autoimmune condition called dermatomyositis, which causes the immune system to mistakenly attack muscle fibers. 

Their daughter, Maeve, was diagnosed with two autoimmune disorders: Graves’ disease, which causes an overactive thyroid, and Thyroid Eye Disease, which causes eye swelling and discomfort

Brain inflammation in their autistic son led to significant skill regression, including a prolonged loss of speech

‘I had joint pain and exhaustion to another level when I would be dizzy and have headaches,’ Campos said. ‘My hands and feet hurt so bad it was horrible.’

The family had to leave their home and give up nearly everything in it, as it had been contaminated. 

Porous materials, such as sofas and mattresses, act like sponges for mold, making them difficult to fully clean and posing a continued health risk.

‘We’ve gone through major grieving processes, we’ve grieved it a lot,’ Campos said. ‘We lost all of our belongings, we threw our couch, beds, rugs, dressers, everything got thrown away.’

Clearing mold from a home is expensive. The Campos family, who are still living in Texas, had to spend around $80,000 to make the home livable. 

The process begins with a professional inspection to assess the extent of the problem and identify the source of moisture. 

Technicians then begin isolating the contaminated area with physical barriers and negative air pressure to prevent the spread of spores during the cleanup process.

Then, specialists safely remove the mold-infested materials, such as drywall or insulation, clean and disinfect salvageable surfaces, and use industrial-strength air scrubbers to filter out microscopic spores and particles from the air.

Jefte Campos was hospitalized for a week, according to his wife. He experienced frequent rashes and autoimmune flareups due to the toxic mold exposure in his home

The family, still living in Texas, has mostly recovered from their long-term toxic exposure. It can take months to years for the body to clear out toxins and repair damaged tissues 

The process is only successful if the underlying cause of the mold is addressed and resolved, which means repairing the source of moisture, such as a leaky pipe, roof damage, or poor ventilation, to prevent the problem from returning.

Finally, technicians perform post-cleanup testing to ensure the mold levels have returned to a safe range and the environment is healthy for people.

Campos said: ‘It’s really hard to lose everything you’ve worked so hard for. For a long time, I felt like I failed my kids, I thought about how I did not know…We felt like we failed at purchasing the home.

‘That was devastating, knowing that the home you’re trying to heal from all these medical things is making it worse.’

Their detox period took about two months, as the body’s immune system needs to calm down, allowing the liver and kidneys to recuperate. 

The entire process of clearing the toxins from the body, de-escalating the immune system and repairing tissues is often observed to take, on average, several weeks to a few months for people to feel a significant turnaround. 

Some people with more severe or prolonged exposure may take six months or even years to feel better, while others may recover more quickly. 

‘We were just exhausted,’ Campos said. ‘It was a gradual thing, not an immediate relief, because we were in it for so long.’