Mom claims apartment mold sent 12-year-old daughter to hospital

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - From the outside, 1149 Rodin Avenue looks bad enough. But take one step inside and you’ll see how it can get worse.

“I either plunge it down or other than that, when we moved in, it looked just like this,” said Ashley Harris.

As a single mother with three kids and another one on the way, Harris says she’s reached her breaking point. She says her landlord refuses to fix much-needed repairs in her apartment.

“This is the cabinet that he promised to fix, to bring another one from home depot, he never brought one,” said Ashley as she walked us through her bathroom.

A family of four and not even one working toilet. Harris says her landlord, Jesse Glasper, promised to have everything fixed as soon as possible but hasn’t come through. She believes mold is all over her house and says it has gotten so bad; her 12-year-old daughter had to go to the hospital.

“My oxygen levels were not good...I was vomiting really bad...Headaches,” 12-year-old Braniya Harris explained.

“When we got there her oxygen levels were up and then one minute it was down. They put her on an oxygen machine, they gave her fluids, we stayed there from Saturday till Sunday morning around 8:30 or 9:00,” added Braniya’s mom.

With no luck getting her landlord on over the phone, we headed over to his place to see if we would have better luck. He said he would look into it before shutting the door.

“It’s been really hard but...my mom has still managed...through everything...,” said Braniya.

“I’m most afraid of losing my kids to the state really. And it’s not my fault because I go to work from 7 to 7 every morning, I’m doing my part by paying my rent, keeping lights on, keeping my water on, and everything on my end,” Ashley Harris continued.

If you are having similar issues, you can find out who your housing authority is to file a report. Worst-case scenario you can take legal action through the Attorney General’s office.

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