Family rebuilds home after they say mold caused daughter's extreme illness

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A Heber City family claims hidden black mold caused their daughter's illness.
Verity Phelps, 12, experienced seizures and other symptoms, leading to a hospital visit.
The family demolished their home, planning to rebuild by Christmas with community support.

HEBER CITY — Hidden black mold in their century-old home was making a Heber girl seriously sick. It got so bad that the family decided to tear down the home and rebuild.

Melissa Phelps runs a preschool in Heber. Sometimes her 12-year-old daughter, Verity, comes to help.

"She's got very much artistic ability and musical ability," Melissa said.

When her talkative child started having seizures, she was concerned.

"She was diagnosed with absence epilepsy," Melissa said. But the episodes got worse.

"I would ask her to touch, 'Touch your shoulder,' and she wouldn't know what that was," she said. Then Verity started having stomach issues.

"I just kind of honestly felt like a failure," Verity said. "I would go to school, and then I'd throw up and I'd feel terrible and check out."

Her mom took her to the hospital when she developed a rash and a fever.

"The E.R. nurse says, 'Code red, code red,' and that's code for sepsis," Melissa said. She said doctors couldn't pin down what was wrong. Then, she asked about the health impacts of mold.

"We had done some remodel and we found some black mold under the floor," Melissa said. They found evidence of mold in a lot of places. After that, the family was connected with a plumber.

"The bishop of our ward came to me and he was like, 'The plumber didn't want to tell you, but he thinks if you get an inspector in here, they're going to condemn your home," Melissa said. It would cost more to mitigate the issue than rebuild.

"He said, 'I don't want to overstep here, but would you let us just tear down your house and build you a new one?'" Melissa said.

The Phelps family home is now rubble. However, they hope to be living in it again by Christmas.

The remains of the Phelps home in Heber City, Monday. A remodel revealed black mold in many places of the home, leading to the family tearing it down. (Photo: Shelby Lofton, KSL)

"There were a lot of feelings," Melissa said. She said doctors have told her there's nothing they can diagnose Verity with yet.

"We've done every test we can think of, and maybe in 10 years, whatever is happening will be diagnosable," Melissa said. She and Verity said that ever since they left the house, Verity has felt remarkably better.

"I feel like I have more life in me now," Verity said.

The Phelps family has set up a GoFundMe* to help pay for the construction of their new home. They've also set up Verity's Hope Service Project, asking for funds and supplies donations.

*KSL.com does not assure that the money deposited into the account will be applied for the benefit of the persons named as beneficiaries. If you are considering a deposit to the account, you should consult your own advisers and otherwise proceed at your own risk.

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The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Shelby Lofton

Shelby comes to Utah after working for three years at WKYT, the CBS affiliate in Lexington, Kentucky. There, she was the weekend anchor and reporter. During her time in the Commonwealth, Shelby covered the 2021 Western Kentucky tornadoes. She was honored to share the stories of resilience there and help pay tribute to the victims. She was struck by the generosity of the people who jumped in to help with clean up and recovery efforts. Her favorite stories to tell are ones that highlight humanity coming together and using their strengths to make a real difference. Shelby also had the privilege of covering The Kentucky Derby twice. She was named Rookie of the Year by the Kentucky Broadcasters Association in 2020. Shelby is a proud graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism. In college, she worked at KOMU-TV, the NBC affiliate in Columbia, Missouri. She was fortunate to try out a lot of jobs behind the camera, but reporting is where her heart is. Shelby was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. She grew up taking road trips up and down the west coast. She loves traveling and has visited 10 countries. When she’s not in the newsroom or out reporting in the field, Shelby enjoys catching up on documentaries, listening to podcasts, dining at different hotspots, cheering on Mizzou sports and hiking Utah’s many beautiful trails.