Christina and Alexandrea's Story

Discovery

Rose fears that, in hindsight, her daughter Alex has been poisoned since birth.  At six months old she was not eating, and her Toledo area doctor said not to worry.  But at nine months she was still not eating and her weight was very low.  She then took her infant daughter back to the doctor and her daughter’s lead count was 38.  The Health Department was supposed to contact her, but they did not.  After ten days she called and then they came out and tested the house.  They found that there was lead dust everywhere – in her room, on the floors, the woodwork, over her daughter’s toys.  Rose even feared that the problem began when her baby was in her room, as she vacuumed and prepared the nursery that was covered with lead hazards.  Then she found out that her 9-year-old daughter Christina had been lead poisoned as well. 

 

Impact

Rose describes how “crazy” she felt: “I freaked out,” say explains, “I didn’t know what to do.  I kept Alex off the floor, I constantly washed her hands, and we spent a lot of time out of the house.  I became neurotic, I felt like our lives were in limbo.”  It was a long time of feeling “permanently confused, alone, and guilty, then I decided I had to inform myself.”  She got information, got connected to a parent support group in her community and changed her family’s diet.  She felt that her pediatrician was helpful, calming her down as she worried about the fate of her daughters. 

The effects on her Christina were very hard socially.  The school she was in was uninformed about lead poisoning and the special attention she might need, and they were unsupportive to Rose and her daughter.  Christina was moved to the back of the classroom because they said she was ill behaved and missed too much school (due to her treatment schedule).  The kids began to tease her daughter about having to get treatment for her lead poisoning, and she asked to stop her lead work because of the embarrassment from her peers.  Her grades suffered as well.

It also exhausted Rose financially with the lead treatments and the abatement that they have had to do in their home.  Her youngest daughter has breathing problems and chronic bronchitis.  She is sickly in comparison to her older sister when she was the little one’s age, and it is painful for Rose to see her child chronically sick and run-down.  Her older daughter wants to be a doctor to help other lead poisoned children, but Rose fears that her daughter’s struggle to achieve and comprehend now because of the effects of lead on her brain will diminish her chances of success. 

 

Future

Rose has now become a self-appointed “preacher” of prevention.  She feels that “If I had been told about lead and the effects I would have changed things in my house.  I was not aware of the hazards.”  Now she, with apostolic fervor, works to empower other parents to be informed and to make preventative changes in their environments.  Rose now volunteers for a parent support group in Northeastern Ohio to raise funds, and get organized to do awareness and community outreach to organizations, schools, and parents about the dangers of lead hazards.  She sees now the importance of a collaborative effort with city, community, and business leaders to work together for prevention, and for future children who will be encountering these hazards. The experience has re-aligned Rose’s priorities and ambitions.  She has struggled with a very painful and real issue in her life and she wants to make sure other parents know about prevention and their rights in how to battle lead hazards, sub-standard housing, schools, and the health of their children.  She hopes that the parent group will grow in strength and ability to effect change and that eventually lead poisoning can be eliminated.