Help Protect Elijah's Lungs from Toxic Mold

Hi...I am Steve Figley, a family counselor in Gainesville, Florida.

I am making an appeal for donations on behalf of Ethan and Marissa Carter because their modest home is infected with toxic black mold and their three-year-old son, Elijah, has a rare medical condition that makes this toxin life-threatening for him.

We are uncertain how much money will be needed to resolve this environmental threat to Elijah’s health, but we are setting an initial goal that we can revise as costs are more certain. Perhaps we will be blessed with one or more of the professionals we approach choosing to donate a portion of their services to Elijah’s cause. The donations I am requesting are intended to address four areas of need related to this life-threatening emergency:

(1) The cost of remediating the mold in the home.

(2) The cost of replumbing the home. The family's modest home was built with a defective batch of CPVC pipe that has led to spontaneous bursts twice--creating the risk of the mold returning after remediation.

(3) The cost of temporary housing while the family is displaced from their home. Generous friends have opened their homes to the family for a season, but Elijah's currently fragile system has left him too susceptible to others' illnesses at this point to continue taking the risk of living with another family.

(4) The cost of an air filtration appliance to enhance the air quality in the home.

I will share a bit about Elijah, his rare medical condition, and his family. I will then share how your donations can maximize this boy's opportunity to grow up and reach the potential for which God blessed his parents with him and spared his life earlier this year when his survival seemed so uncertain.

Elijah is a little boy, who when feeling well, displays all the energy and inquisitiveness and drive and delight one would find in any three-year-old boy. Yet Elijah was born with a very rare genetic disorder known as Eagle Barrett Syndrome or Prune Belly Syndrome. One of the characteristics of children born with this syndrome is the absence of abdominal muscles. This deficit limits Elijah's ability to cough up secretions, creating risk to his respiratory system.

Shortly before last Christmas, Elijah developed a respiratory infection leading to pneumonia in both lungs and spent two full months in Shands Hospital's pediatric intensive care unit as doctors worked tirelessly to save his life—with one or both of his parents always at his bedside. Several times it appeared that we might lose little Elijah, but with a team of prayer warriors on the ready, each time God mercifully intervened and brought him back from the edge of eternity.

I have been positioned to know Elijah's parents very well. We first came to know Ethan and Marissa Carter about six years ago, when Marissa began a volunteer internship role at Grace Encouragement Ministries (GEM), the not-for-profit directed by my wife. Marissa became part of GEM's Deborah's Daughters ministry, and soon thereafter, Ethan joined the men's groups of The Reinstatement Project (TRP) that Matt Kern and I co-lead. Later, Marissa enrolled in Liberty University's on-line graduate counseling program. Now, nearing the end of that program, Marissa is an intern in my counseling practice—although she has had to take the last two semesters off because of Elijah's health.

God later blessed Ethan and Marissa with a lively and healthy little girl, Joella, who looks up to her big brother and aspires to follow him in his enthusiasm for life. Ethan works in engineering at the VA Hospital. Thankfully, this employment provides the family with excellent health insurance.

Homeowner’s insurance is less helpful, however, as their insurer limits mold coverage to $10,000, and will not pay any of their policy’s loss-of-use coverage when the need for temporary housing arises from the presence of mold.

Ethan and Marissa purchased their small home two years ago and have already experienced two events of very costly plumbing failure. The first was only seven months after buying their home—and required them to move in with dear friends for six months while repairs were being made. The second happened a mere two months after their return home following repairs—and mold was discovered shortly thereafter. An initial failed attempt at remediation permitted the mold to break containment and spread to additional locations in the home.

Ethan and Marissa initially moved in with another family after this second event of having to leave their home, but it soon became apparent that they would need to rent Airbnb’s to ensure a controlled environment for Elijah’s health. His extensive period of intubation while in Shands’ PICU has left Elijah’s lungs too vulnerable to normal childhood germs.

Eventually, Ethan and Marissa must revisit the matter of whether they have been dealt with justly by their insurance company, their earlier contractors, and the CPVC pipe manufacturer. But as I have watched from a distance, it increasingly became clear to me that someone must tell their story so that those who care about them and their little boy can help to restore stability. Any injustices along the way can be revisited after some level of normalcy is restored.

Despite Elijah's health challenges, those of us who have followed closely his journey cannot help but see him as a little miracle: A little boy whose parents were told would need heart surgery at birth—yet his heart was perfectly healthy. A little boy who seemed at the brink of eternity multiple times during his two months in intensive care. Yet God spared him!

Half of children with Elijah's condition do not survive past age two. And there are only 1500 children living in the U.S. with this condition. But when I remember Elijah as an infant moving to the beat of the song These Are the Days of Elijah, sung by a host of Marines at Camp Pendleton, I know that God has a purpose for this miracle boy! As with each of us, only God knows the number of days He has ordained for Elijah. Ethan and Marissa are giving their all to be careful stewards of their precious children. If you feel drawn to help them in this fight, they will be so grateful. Your prayers will be so meaningful as well. God Bless. --Steve Figley

Link to Marines at Camp Pendleton singing These are the Days of Elijah!

https://youtu.be/6woSL6yC9wA?feature=shared