Terminix
Family is forced to move from home after Mother and Daughter become ill after pesticide spraying
My husband and I bought a nice home on Village Dr. in the township of Saugerties, New York in June 1988. We had all five of our children living with us at that time. Our new home had five bedrooms. Our four older children each had their own room and our youngest daughter shared a room with her father and I. My children loved our new home. We fenced in the back yard with a 6' stockade fence and put in a 4' above the ground swimming pool. We also bought a nice wooden swing set for the kids.
In the summer of 1993 we seemed to have a lot of carpenter ants both inside and outside of our home. My girlfriend told me to call Terminix and have them check out the problem. I called and they made an appointment to come and look at the ant problem we were having. Terminix said they could get ride of my ants by doing a treatment each month. They told me the pesticides that they would use wouldn't bother my asthma or my youngest daughter Kenna's respiratory problems. Terminix came each month and treated my home, for the next thirteen months. In August 1994 my husband Skip and I decided to remodel our home. Skip had an on the job injury and he had to retire after working at Lehigh Portland Cement Company for twenty four years. We had a new roof and seamless gutters put on, new black top driveway and side walk, painted the home inside and out, put all new carpet in every room, new linoleum in the kitchen and downstairs hallway. We also put new small ceramic tiles in the bathroom.
We did all this because Skip could no longer work and we knew we wouldn't be able to afford to remodel at any other time. We even put in a new boiler, for our heating system. We had new electric lines put in to replace some of the old lines and we put in new brakers. Everyone loved how nice our home turned out, once it was finished. We even planted beautiful flowers and rose bushes in the front yard.
In August 1994 my neighbor came to me and said her home was full of termites! She told me I should really have my home checked for termites. Skip called Terminix to check our home. They came to see us on Sept. 22, Terminix told us we should have a preventative treatment done, to make sure the termites didn't travel from Susie's home to ours. The Terminix man told Skip and I that the chemicals they'd use wouldn't bother my asthma or Kenna's respiratory problems. We agreed to have the treatment done. On Saturday morning, September 24, 1994 Terminix came to do our home. I questioned them again about the chemicals they were going to use. Once again I was told they were safe. I told Skip that I was going to take Kenna out for a while while the treatment was being done. As I was leaving the Terminix man told me if it would make me feel better I should take Kenna's birds with me. Kenna and I each carried a birdcage to my van. Skip yelled Dolly where are you and Kenna going with the birds. I said I didn't want to take any chances with the birds breathing in the chemical smells. We were told to stay gone for five hours. I think we went back home nine hours later. As soon as we walked in the front door my asthma started from the chemical smells. Kenna said our home stunk!! We went to bed hoping that the smells would be gone by morning. Kenna was up a lot that night saying her throat hurt and it was hard for her to breath. We left for the day on Sunday. I thought maybe the smells would be gone when we came back home. We opened all the windows before we left. When we came back home that evening, the smells were still there. Kenna and I both started to get sick again. Skip called Terminix, they said the chemicals were safe and they didn't know why we were getting sick.
Kenna and I went to the doctors, Monday morning. We were
both very sick from breathing in the chemicals that Terminix had used. Because
we stayed sick Terminix put Kenna and I in a motel for almost three weeks.
Terminix put new air vents in the back of my home and ran big fans around the
clock, trying to get the smells out of our home. They even had a cleaning
company come in and clean the carpets and furniture. Nothing seemed to work.
Every time Kenna and I went back into the home we got sick.
Terminix told me they weren't going to pay for the motel bill anymore, because they did all they could do to fix the problem in my home. In December 1994 Kenna and I went to Florida and stayed with my uncle for two weeks. We both felt fine. We went back home and got sick again. All six of Kenna's birds died. My sister Tammy rented Kenna, Skip and I her one bedroom apartment for the next six months. Kenna and I spent the next 1 1/2 year going in and out of the doctor’s office. We were both on medication all the time for the side effects we were having from the pesticides. We had so many different people in our home to see what was wrong, that I can't even remember who they all were. Experts came and said we needed to have a company come in with hepa filters to clean the home. This company ripped up all the new carpet and put it in bio-hazard bags. They put 6mm plastic down on every floor from corner to corner, then they put duck tape from corner to corner to keep the plastic down. I called Saugerties Carpet and asked Frank and Richie if they could put new carpet in my home again. They asked me why because I had just put all new carpet in. I explained why and they came and redid my floors.
After Terminix did all they could do to my home, the environmental company did all they could do, and we did all we could do, I thought Kenna and I would be able to live in our home. It cost us thousands of dollars to try and repair what Terminix did to our health and our home. Nothing worked. Our doctors advised us to move out of our home and not return. In the end Kenna and I have very bad health problems, we moved into a new home, and now we feel better. We both still get sick very easily. When we moved out of our home we left everything behind!!!! Kenna and I used all our medical insurance. We both had a $30,000.00 policy from the company Skip retired from.
We never went to trial with Terminix. We settled because our lawyers told us we'd go bankrupt trying to pay them their expences. It's a no win situation when you try to win a case against a multi-million dollar company. Terminix never admitted any guilt in our case against them. I have two big boxes of paper work that my lawyers gave to me.
Dr. Sheldon Feldman wrote an article about what happened to Kenna and I. He's doing a research project, to see if there's a link between breast cancer and pesticides. Dr. Sheldon Feldman is the doctor that did the fat biopsy on Kenna and I. He had never done a fat biopsy before. Dr. Janet Sherman told him to call the Accu-Chem Lab in Richardson, Texas. The lab sent the special tubes and instructions on how to do the biopsy. It cost $200.00 for the doctor and $200.00 for the lab. Skip, Kenna and I each had this minor operation done. Here's our email address; DollyAckert@hvc.rr.com
Dolly Ackert & Kenna Jo Tyler
Saugerties, New York
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