KTNV ABC,Channel 13,Las Vegas,Nevada,News,Weather,Sports,Entertainment,KTNV.com,Action News .:. Contact 13 Follow Up: Mold Kills Health District Employee
Member Center:
Could the very agency responsible for protecting and promoting public health be responsible for a man's death?
A family and their federal lawsuit says yes.
In an exclusive Contact 13 investigation Darcy Spears shows how the Health District's main building may have harbored a killer.
When Dan Pauluk died, he had been literally eaten alive.
"There are no words to describe how horrifying and tormenting his death was," explained Dan's wife Dr. Wendy Pauluk.
Mold spores in his body caused exhaustion, confusion, trouble breathing and painful rashes as the toxins literally oozed out of his body through his skin.
"It burns so bad and it is hard to think, it is hard to walk on this leg, it is hard to be anything but consumed with this," said Dan, at the time when he wife recorded his progress on camera.
His family and his doctors say he was exposed to the mold, aspergillus and stachybotrys, at work in the Environmental Health Wing of the Southern Nevada Health District's main building on Shadow Lane.
"The same species of mold that was found in the building was found in the DNA of his tissue," said Wendy.
The Health District's own human resources department in 2005 noted that Dan was the third current active employee with this specific diagnosis.
Linda May is an OSHA and EPA accredited expert on toxic mold.
"I am extremely surprised and upset that action was not taken immediately to remove the employees and protect the public from even going in that building," said Linda May.
Contact 13 obtained a complaint filed in 2006 by a member of the public who was concerned about toxic mold and air quality inside the Health District building.
He observed missing ceiling tile, wet water stains, and dirty ventilation grills.
Still, the Health District continued to assure employees the building was safe, citing a December 2005 Nevada OSHA study that found no detectable levels of mold.
There is one problem with that.
Contact 13 spoke to an official with the Centers for Disease Control who says there is no standard for mold in the workplace, so OSHA cannot be using one.
He says the agency did not do its job in the case to properly protect Health District employees.
No one at the Health District would comment for this story because of ongoing litigation.
"You cannot play it down like a lot of people do. I mean, there is still people that try to claim it is not bad for you, it does not hurt you and I saw first hand what a person has to go through and it is absolutely horrible," said Chrissy Pauluk.
Unfortunately, Dan was not the only one who would go through it.
The CDC's web site warns that mold in the air can attach itself to things like clothing, shoes and bags.
"I have been made sick because my husband brought home the mold spores and I was near him, with him, caring for him, loving him," said Dr. Wendy Pauluk.
Wendy Pauluk is now living hand to mouth.
It is not money, but a mountain of medicine, pills and liquids she says are keeping her alive, but which came too late to help her husband.
"It didn't look like I was gonna live. I was going down fast. It was starting to affect my lungs and my heart to such a great degree," explained Wendy.
She also lost all her teeth.
"When I had surgery and they took out my teeth, my teeth came out black like coal from the mold," said Wendy.
Wendy's medical tests revealed very high levels of toxic mold in her system.
"Normally the amounts that were found in her are found at autopsy," said Linda.
Like in Dan's autopsy, which shows a very toxic and dangerous organism in his body, consistent with the results of environmental studies conducted at his office.
"Somebody has to be accountable for this. It is just not right that people die and everybody looks the other way," said Larue Scull.
The Health District cannot look the other way anymore.
In a recent decision in the Pauluk's federal lawsuit, Judge Phillip Pro wrote, "Pauluk's supervisors ordered him to work in an area they knew to be dangerous. They misrepresented the safety of the facility by presenting a false report about its cleanliness."
He calls their actions "egregious and conscience-shocking."
"They have seen to it that their actions have destroyed a person," said Dan.
Dan Pauluk is forever gone but on the one-year anniversary of his death, he is not forgotten.
The Health District would not let Contact 13 videotape the area where Dan worked.
They say it is restricted.
After Dan left his job on permanent medical disability, they say the wing was completely remodeled.
In addition to his wife, Dan's caregiver got sick and lost all his teeth too.
Mold toxins were even found in the body of the family dog.
Stay tuned to Action News as we monitor developing news around the Valley.
 |
