Dhru Purohit Show - "Hidden Mold Was Slowly Killing Me!” - How Kristina Baehr Discovered the Root Cause of Her Mystery Chronic Illness and Uncovered a Massive Cover-Up Attempt

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

This episode is brought to you by Butcher Box and Lifeforce. We know that environmental toxins in our air and water can cause chronic disease. Mold is one of those deadly toxins, and exposure can cause symptoms that can’t be explained by traditional testing or by doctors who are unfamiliar with how symptoms may present themselves. Those suffering exposure can often feel hopeless and unsupported. In addition, there is often no accountability for the experts or individuals who either intentionally or negligently caused the mold exposure. Today’s guest hopes to change that.  Today on The Dhru Purohit Podcast, Dhru sits down with attorney Kristina Baehr about her family's personal experience with toxic mold and their journey to seek justice for the emotional, medical, and financial damages they suffered. Kristina shared what she learned about their symptoms, how her home had become a toxic bubble, and the lack of accountability on each party involved in the home building and inspection process.  Kristina also shares why she started her law firm and made it her mission to help individuals suffering from exposure to environmental toxins, and discusses the facts of the Red Hill case in Hawaii, where military families were exposed to water contaminated with jet fuel.    Kristina Baehr is a national trial lawyer representing sick people against the companies that made them sick. She founded Just Well Law to help clients recover financially to rebuild their health and lives. Kristina is also a former Assistant US Attorney and represented the United States in civil actions, including catastrophic personal injury.  In this episode, Dhru and Kristina dive into (audio version / Apple Subscriber version): The epidemic of chronic disease caused by water and mold and the cover-up efforts (3:54 / 3:54)  What Kristina and her family learned about mold (6:47 / 6:47)  How Kristina’s house became toxic, causing her family symptoms and permanent damage (12:21 / 13:27)  Accountability through the legal process (20:44 / 18:20)  Status quo, conspiracy, and lack of accountability (22:00 / 19:46)  The verdict in Kristina’s family’s case (29:14 / 27:00)  The team that helped Kristina discover her diagnosis (42:30 / 40:02) Kristina’s commitment to paying it forward and starting Just Well law (47:40 / 44:44) The symptoms families in Hawaii faced after ingesting jet fuel (51:44 / 48:57) Why the government chose to protect itself rather than protecting military families (54:30 / 51:50) Lack of responsibility and passing the buck in the Red Hill matter (57:44 / 54:53) Kristina’s practice and the types of cases she focuses on (1:04:40 / 1:02:03)  For more on Kristina, you can follow her on Instagram @justwelllaw, and through her website https://www.well.law/. Right now, new members of ButcherBox receive New York Strip steaks for a year PLUS $20 off your first order. Go to butcherbox.com/DHRU to sign up and use code DHRU. Right now, get 15% off your first purchase of Lifeforce at mylifeforce.com with code DHRU. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Do not subject yourself or your family to toxic water or toxic air. It will slowly kill you or it'll leave you close to dead. My prayer for you, if you're in that place, is that you would get out, that you would get help, that you would find your helpers, and that you would get well. Hi, everyone, Drew Prode here. Today's guest is Christina Bear and boy, does she have a crazy, mind-blowing story to tell you. It's a true story about hidden toxins that were. keeping Christina and her family sick for years and a vast conspiracy that prevented her and her family from knowing the truth about why they were getting sick and more importantly, a conspiracy

that was preventing them or tried to prevent them from getting justice and redemption. Now, for years, Christina suffered with unexplained symptoms. It started off with migraines and around the clock fatigue. In fact, it was so bad that Christina went to her doctors at the time and told them that she had felt that she got hit by a Mack truck. Now, things kept on getting worse, and then one day out of the blue, Christina fainted and was rushed to the hospital. The doctors there took care of her and eventually found a tumor in her body and in her brain, but they had no idea what was driving its growth or these unexplained symptoms that she had been dealing with. Little did Christina know at the time, but her home, the place that was supposed to be keeping her and her

family safe was slowly poisoning them because it was infested with toxic black mold. In today's episode, not only does Christina tell her mind-blowing story that will hopefully be a massive warning to anyone and everyone listening about the dangers of hidden mold, mold that often you cannot see, but in this episode, Christina is also going to be talking about her path of getting redemption for her family and other families like her by taking. on the biggest power brokers, the biggest gatekeepers, including the United States government, using her deep knowledge of the law. Now, a quick background on Christina, because she has a fascinating background that brought her to this whole world and this whole story that she's

going to tell you about on the podcast today. Christina is a national trial lawyer who represents sick people against the companies that are making them sick, including sometimes the government. She founded Just Well Law to help clients recover financially so that they can rebuild their health and their lives just as her family had been trying to do from getting sick from toxic mold. As an assistant U.S. attorney, Christina at the time represented the United States in civil actions, including catastrophic personal injury. She defended army doctors who were accused of medical malpractice, postal service drivers after catastrophic accidents and events.

The Air Force, the VA, the FFA. has a lot of experience in this area. Now, prior to that, Christina attended Princeton University and then Yale Law, and she's been committed to using the law as a tool of empowerment. She's helped people living with HIV and AIDS in Uganda fight for financial freedom. She founded the Domestic Violence Clinic at Yale Law University, and she helped the Ministry of Justice in Liberia launch a sex crimes prosecution unit with the Carter Center. Now, as I mentioned before, this episode is going to blow your mind.

and stay tuned for our deep dive into the dangers of toxic mold and how families all over the world are truly in a fight for their lives against the power brokers that are often keeping them sick. Christina, welcome to the podcast. There are two crazy takeaways that I've gotten from following your story and getting introduced to your work. Number one, there's a hidden epidemic of chronic disease impacting millions of people, at least here in America,

that's being driven largely by environmental toxins, things like mold and polluted or toxic water, toxic soil. And number two, and this is the big one, there's a massive cover-up attempt, often by people in power that prevents families who are impacted by these environmental toxins from getting justice and restitution. It's a wild story. and not only this is happening, and not only is this happening, this happened to you and your family. Can you start us at the beginning of the story? I was sick for years,

and I couldn't figure out what was going on. And I was in big law, which means that I was at the top of my game. I was doing high-level intellectual property cases, and I started seeing double, and then getting confused, and felt like, like I'd been hit by a truck.

I had this intense inner ear pain, rashes that wouldn't go away. Suddenly I had migraines. Things that I had never had before. But they were getting worse and worse. And I started going to a series of doctors as you do. And they said, reduce stress in your life. Eat better. Exercise more.

And I did all those things. So I was gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free. I was Christina 2.0. I got a government job. And then they said, go quarantine at home. And it got worse. And my son started running into walls and regressing in his developmental milestones. And I just couldn't function.

I couldn't see straight. And I thought I was going to die, but I didn't know why. And I finally went to a doctor who gave me a mycotoxin test. and I had never heard the word mycotoxin. And they said, go test your house for toxic mold. Again, not something I'd ever heard of. My husband and I have five Ivy League degrees between us. We had never heard toxic mold.

We'd never heard staccubotris. And we can talk about that, but that's intentional, right? There's a massive cover up in this country, and we didn't even know. We didn't know that this was a thing. and we started investigating and we found the tip of the iceberg and we got out and it was a nightmare as you started to peel back the layers of the onion and it wasn't just you experiencing these mystery symptoms it was your family as well you mentioned your son what were the foundational things you started to learn about mold and what it was doing

doing to you and your family? I couldn't figure it out at first because if you just Google it, you get a lot of conflicting information. So I went to the source. I went to PubMed, and I just started reading the medical literature myself. And what does Mole do to your body? And it causes a cytokine storm that's a lot like long COVID, the systemic inflammation. It affects every aspect of your body. But it can especially attack your brain. And And it started making sense. My daughter, who was eight at the time, had started beating up her big brother and it just become violent overnight.

And then my two-year-old was running into walls, regressing and developmental milestones. And then I felt like I was going crazy. I contemplated driving into oncoming traffic. I'd never had any thoughts like that in my whole life. And I just understood for the first. first time that there was something else going on. And it started making a sense. And then we started peeling back the onion on the house. And I had a mold inspector come to our house. And he said, tell me about your family. And he sat down on my living room couch. I mean, it's like pest control

comes in and says, can I sit down? That just doesn't even happen. And I didn't really understand. But I started telling him about my daughter because I'd started reading about mycotoxins and maybe this is what was going on with her. And he said, I often find it behind the wall of the kid most affected. So he took a flashlight to her wall and he found faint water damage. And he took an air sample right next to the wall and he found staccidotris, which is a black mold. It's incredibly dangerous.

It's used in biological warfare. I learned later. and we opened the wall and it was black. And a roofer had failed to flash the chimney at the roof. And so water had been coming into that wall for nine years. Wow. My poor little girl was quarantining and was at home, you know, everyone was out of school. So she wasn't getting an escape.

And she was just in her room coloring for hours at a time next to a substance that's used in biological warfare. And, you know, it's heartbreaking because you have this guilt as a parent. Why didn't we know? Why didn't I figure it out sooner? But I'm just so thankful that we got out because I think we would have died. I think I would have died. By the time I left, I had a tumor.

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That's my, M-Y-L-I-F-E-F-E-F-O-R-C-E dot com and enter the code D-H-R-U that's Drew to optimize your health span today. You know, all the while you're living in this house, which was in Austin, Texas, thinking you've created a home, a protective, safe haven for your family. And little did you know your house was actually poisoning you. And during that time, and we later got to tell his story to a jury, and we asked a jury, you know, what does home mean to you? It means sanctuary, safety, comfort, family. What did it mean to you during COVID? It meant health, oasis, protection.

So we were in this home that was supposed to be keeping us safe at the time. We wouldn't, I wouldn't let us go out to the grocery store. And we learned that it was our home that was killing us. Not this pathogen that was out there, but a pathogen that was right here. And we had nowhere to go. Because who's going to take a family of six, two of whom, three of whom have like serious neurological problems. I mean, my kids were not okay.

and I couldn't just subject someone else to that. So we didn't feel like we had anywhere to go. And it's very confusing when you're in a house that's poisoning you because you don't want to believe it. And it takes you a little while to understand. You have to get out. You have to get out. And thankfully we did.

And then I started building the case. And just for people who are falling along, you're a lawyer. I'm a lawyer. And at the time, I was a personal injury lawyer for the first time. I had grown up in patent litigation, but when I started not feeling well, I went to the government to the Department of Justice, and I was an assistant U.S. attorney. And I was doing personal injury defense for the United States of America. So I was on the defensive side, and I know a good case. I mean, I know what to look for. And here we were a family of six. We had lost our house and everything.

and we had six very sick people because of the clear negligence of the builder, the roofer, and ultimately the HVAC company. They had created an incredibly unsafe house that was poisoning my family. And I learned later was intentionally, intentionally defective. Let's talk about that for a second. You know, you lived in a nice home. It was beautiful. It was beautiful.

We're not talking about a washed up remodel that you guys were just getting by in. This was a nice home. And I mentioned this because a lot of people who don't hear about mold and its potential harm on the human body. And you've mentioned that that's partially intentional. And we'll get to that in a second. There's a little bit of a cover up that's there. a lot of people think, well, sure, you find some mold, whether you're renting or you own a home, it's no big deal. You know, my landlord might come in and paint over it or make it go away or you find some mold by the sink.

You clean it up. Why was this different? And how did the mold exposure that you guys had, this black mold, which you mentioned is used in biological warfare, how did it? not only cause these symptoms, but lead to, in some instances, with your family's health, some permanent damage? We're building these houses now to be energy efficient. And my house was one of the first on the cusp of that. It was built in 2011 with spray foam insulation.

And the idea is if we build it to be energy efficient, we're going to spend less on energy, air conditioning is going to work better, all of that. But the problem is if the house becomes toxic, then you're in an energy-efficient toxic bubble. And H-FAC companies are not used to dealing with these houses with spray foam. You have to be very, very meticulous about how you set up the system so that it can be safe for the inhabitants, the tenants. And they didn't do that in my case. So two things happened. And one, the roofer didn't flash the chimney, which means that he didn't put in the waterproofing

at the chimney. So you have to work with the mason. The ruffer and the mason have to work together. And when you put the bricks together to build a chimney, the roofer wasn't there when the mason built the chimney. And he told the builder and the builder's foreman, hey, the chimney's not flashed. it needs to be redone. And the foreman said, don't worry about it.

Just rig it. And that's what they did. They just put the metal on the outside to make it look like it had been flashed, but it hadn't been flashed. But what the spray foam does is it hides water damage. So it had been leaking into that wall for nine years, nine straight years, but we couldn't see it because of the spray foam. And then when we opened the wall and saw the blood, I had an expert come over to look at, you know, what's going on here? And he said, this is not just a flashing problem. You have a humidity problem because we learned that our HVAC had not been

connected to dehumidify. So there was a wire that was intended to be connected so that it would have extra dehumidification, which is required in a spray foam house. And they hadn't connected it. So it was a combination of the roofer, the builder, and the HVAC that had created this toxic bubble that we were then quarantining in. And we are not alone. There are millions of Americans who were quarantining in houses that were making them sick because the indoor air quality in our country is so bad right now. And it's bad because these builders don't care. They don't care. They don't care about mold. They don't care really about the health of the tenants who are going to live in the houses. And to be fair, in some circumstances, they just don't know. They either don't

care or they don't know. Either one is a problem. You know, we have you on the podcast today, not just to tell your own story, and it's a powerful story. We have you on here because you have made this a mission in your life to fight for the underdog. Step one by telling your story and raising awareness. But step two, you went on to. which we'll chat about later, you went on to found a law firm that was and can be an advocate for families like yours. You know, you mentioned millions of families are going through this. Even though we're done quarantine in the days of COVID, still if you live at home, if you sleep six to eight hours a night, which almost everybody does, you are regularly in a house that

could be exposing you to all sorts of environmental toxins, mold being one of the biggest problems that are there. In fact, the World Health Organization estimates based on their guidelines that at least one third of the buildings in North America have some form of significant mold exposure due to the way that we build. And those sound like conservative estimates to me. Just having friends, even in a place like L.A., that it doesn't rank that often, I know mold has been a big problem for a lot of individuals. So I'm highlighting because, number one, anybody who follows along with this podcast is not only going to learn how to protect themselves and their family and what to be on the lookout for, but those individuals that have

been impacted, maybe your law firm and what you guys are up to could be a potential advocate for them or a larger group that they're part of. Anything you want to add to that? We have to hold the builders accountable. You know, we talk about how to make the world a safer place, and the jury system in our country is actually one way we do that. The jurors are charged with the safety rules in the United States of enforcing the safety rules, and that's a privilege and an honor that a jury of your peers gets to do that. And so there, you and others and so many have been focusing on, on the health aspects and education aspects of changing the food and the environment we live in.

But there's this piece that's missing, I think, or this piece to add to those tools, which is the legal piece. because the legal system is another way to advocate, to educate, and to bring accountability and change. So that's what I'm hoping we can add to the conversation. Let's talk about that accountability. You know, accountability in the legal system are often used and historically have been used in the face of a David and Goliath story, that there are powers that are entrenched who don't want to disrupt the status quo. Talk about the status quo that exist out there.

That's part of what led to the unique circumstance where your family ended up getting sick. Well, there's a vast conspiracy, as there is so often in so many of these things. But what happened was in Texas, there was a case called the Ballard case. And there was a woman like me, Melinda Ballard, whose family got incredibly sick.

she went on to win a case against the insurance company at a jury trial that awarded $38 million. Huge award. Insurance companies didn't like that. So they went and started excluding mold from their insurance policies. So now your builder's insurance policy doesn't include mold, which is the most catastrophic thing that can happen to a house. Other than a fire, mold is the most catastrophic. thing that can happen because it can overtake the entire house. You can lose your entire house and be uninsured. So that was one of the things that happened to us. We realized that we were

uninsured for this catastrophic event that we didn't even know could possibly happen. And we had all the best insurance. We cared about our house. We loved our house. We had the best insurance money could buy. But it didn't cover this catastrophic event, which was a toxic mold event. nor did the insurance policies of the defendants of the builder and the roofer and the HVAC company. So you had this situation where no one's responsible because no one has coverage. So personal injury lawyers stopped taking these cases. And I couldn't find anyone to help me. I called around to Texas lawyers and no one returned my call.

I was another lawyer. I was at the U.S. Attorney's Office. I was a smart, you know, educated, I thought nice person, emailing them saying, hey, can you spend 15 minutes with me to talk about this kind of case? And they didn't return my emails, didn't return my calls. And one of them in San Antonio had mold on his website, but he said he did wrongful death cases. And I thought, well, surely he can talk to me. And he didn't return my call and I emailed him, didn't, you know, got his personal direct email. He didn't return my email. Didn't even have a paralegal call me back. And I just thought, you know what, he can take all the dead people. And maybe I'll start a firm and I'll represent the people who are alive who need to recover. And I don't care if insurance companies don't cover it. I'm going to do it

anyway. And that's what we did in our own case. We carried on. And they said, well, our policy doesn't cover it. I said, well, see you tomorrow. We've got a deposition on Tuesday. And we just kept going. And by the way, every one of those insurance policies ultimately ended up paying because they have to pay the lawyers. So these lawyers, these insurance lawyers, end up spending hours and hours and hours. They ring up this enormous bill, and then the insurance policy says that they're not going to cover it anyway. And then on the eve of trial, that insurance lawyer who's been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars should defend the case doesn't actually want to go to trial on the case because they know that you're going to win. So they ultimately end up paying anyway. It's the most

insane system, and the insurance companies are one of the culprits. One of the other layers that it's part of this vast conspiracy is that I'll hear from people that, hey, I just moved into a place and I've had issues with mold in the past, but don't worry, they had an inspector go and look at the property, whether you're renting and it was inspected before you came in, whether you're buying, and there was an inspector sent over by the seller's side, and the place got a thumbs up. There's no mold. Tell us why that is part of this conspiracy. Well, landlords don't care. They don't care. They want to make money. And they either, again, don't care or don't know. So when they are told that there's a mold problem,

One, they've been brainwashed to believe that mold isn't real. So they haven't actually gone to the scientific literature and read PubMed like I have. So they think, well, this is just a crazy person who thinks that there's a problem and there isn't really. So they treat the person as crazy. That's one step. But then they'll come in and just paint over it. Or they'll call a mold inspector and the mold inspector will come and take an air sample in the middle of the room. And I'd be like, you're good.

No worries. I love to take the deposition of that mold inspector. I say, now, sir, where is mold likely to be found in the wall? Well, if you're looking for mold, are you more likely to find it close to the wall or in the middle of the room? He doesn't want to answer the question, right? Because they're testing in the place least likely to find mold. As my mold inspector, Tim Taylor, who saved our life, as he said, you find it behind the wall

of the kid most affected. So if you're looking for mold, you actually start, you have to start with health, ask about health, you have to actually want to find it. But if you're working for the landlord, you don't want to find it. So the incentives are just so off. and juries care, and that's why we have a lot of cases against those landlords. Because if you paint over a toxic substance, that's the intentional infliction of bodily harm. I'm going to call that out.

And juries think, that could happen to me. The tenant didn't know. What if your house is slowly killing you and you don't know, but your landlord did? Can't we all agree that the landlord's main responsibility is to provide you a home that's safe, a home with safe air? It's absolutely unacceptable for the landlord to provide you a home that doesn't have safe error. And these are just intuitive things.

Let's just say them out loud. And for reasons I've just explained that no one has been saying it out loud in the legal context for a while now, and that has to change. Well, you've been a big part of that change. Give us a little summary of your final arguments to the jury and what helped them put themselves in your shoe. And what was the verdict in your case? Well, it was painful that I couldn't bring my own closing argument because I couldn't be a lawyer

in my own case. So I had to watch Bob McKee and Kevin Tarazas do it and they're fabulous lawyers. And Bob McKee started with the basic premise that you. your home is your safe haven. It's supposed to be safe. And there are these safety rules that a builder must create a safe house. And we have to exercise care. When we do something, when we undertake to do something,

we have to do it in a way that doesn't cause harm to others. and what the HVAC company, because we ultimately went to trial against the HVAC company, what they did here was they knew in that case how dangerous mold was, and they knew that humidity could cause mold, and they didn't connect the dehumidification system. And then they came to trial and tried to blame it on the victim. them. And that didn't go well. And the jury believed, the jury saw right through it and saw that this HVAC company hadn't connected the wires properly and had caused harm. Now, was that intentional?

No, a lot of this is not intentional. Some of it's intentional. If a landlord paints over the toxic substance, it's intentional. But often it's negligent. And here it was gross negligence. And I will never forget, I'm sitting, we're sitting in the jury, we're sitting in the waiting room and, of course, dying for that verdict to come back. And the jury sends back a note. And the question was, is incompetence a deceptive act, according to the jury instructions? You know, I, ultimately the jury determined yes. they found the defendant liable for gross negligence and found that that was in fact that their

conduct was a deceptive act. And it was, it was a beautiful thing. It was a really, really beautiful thing. And the defense, the defendant's closing was also really telling. The defense said, the bears are clearly, he didn't say rich, but he didn't say rich, but he basically. basically said they have resources. And when something happens to you, you need to be thankful for what you have. And he implied that because we brought this case, that we weren't thankful for what we do have. And that really bothered me for a long time. And then it actually brought clarity to me because ultimately, you can be thankful for what you have and also pursue justice for what you lost. And often you have to do that because you have no other choice financially or ethically.

And the pursuit of gratitude and justice at the same time is Shalom. That is, they're united. That is, it is, it's, it's not only can it coincide, but it should coincide. When families like yours go through these horrific experiences and many of them never get justice, and you mentioned that's for a bunch of reasons, including the fact that a lot of lawyers don't pick up these cases. They find them very hard to get financial restitution out of, so they're not incentivized, and they're undereducated on these topics. but you guys went up against Goliath and you won.

Now, part of this is also trying to get some finances out of the parties that are responsible because your life has been upended by this. And the secondary aspect, so besides justice and sometimes justice takes a financial reward to make up for all the losses that are there. I don't know the details of exactly your case, but I'm sure you had so many expenses, getting out of the house, staying somewhere else, finding a new place, not to mention the thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars that were spent on your health. And luckily, you guys had some of those resources, but for any family, that's going to be a big financial impact. So this is recouping time.

effort, money that was spent to get you healthy and safe. But it also lets other people know, and it places companies on notice that, hey, you can't just hide from this. So what was the financial judgment in your case? And have you seen that set new precedent in the law? It was $3.1 million. And it has absolutely set precedent. because injury is hard to prove. And in our case, our judge would not even let us prove bring an injury case. So we showed up with the best experts in the field and she wouldn't even let us do it. We could get into that.

But what my case showed is, so be it. We won anyway. We had a million dollars in damages, economic damages. We lost our house and everything in it. we spent $700,000 trying to fix the house because we found more and more and more. We were so bankrupt that my father-in-law took out a loan on his house. I mean, we borrowed all the money we could, and then our family borrowed as much money as they could to help us get well.

And I say that when you're in this place, you spend all that you have getting well. It doesn't matter how much money you have. you spend it all getting well because you are desperate to get well. And I called my firm just well because I just want people to be well. And that's what I said at the time. And that's what all my clients ultimately want is just to be well. So that's the financial piece of it. Why my case really matters in the world is that we showed that juries care not just about the injury, but What about the bad acts? Their job is to enforce the safety rules in this country. Their job is to make sure that the companies are on notice that they have to exercise good care. If there is a dehumidification

system, you have to connect the wire. And if you don't, you're going to be liable for whatever happens after. That's responsibility. That's the way the world should be. And that's what juries are going to do? So in all my other cases, we're proving injury, right? There's no other case where we haven't proven injury. We're always proving injury. But I get to say to defendants, okay, you think we have a causation injury problem? Sure. If a jury in my case gave $3.1 million for not connecting a wire, what's a jury going to do in your case when you came in and painted over a toxic substance or you took off the vent of an HVAC system and you cleaned it in front of the clients and you said, it's perfect now, don't worry.

And you put it back. Knowing full well that behind that vent was a system full of toxic mold. Those are the kinds of cases I have. So, you know, bring it is kind of our attitude. Bring it. Whatever you have, bring it. Because we will hold these companies responsible and we will get, compensation and recovery for our clients. Tell us about what it was like to hear that jury verdict

on your end. It was such a relief. It was such a relief to be believed. That's ultimately what it comes down to because these defendants, whoever they are, honestly, and we can talk about the government too, which is part of the problem. But these defendants make you feel like you're crazy. They hired an expert to say that I had a somatic disorder. I've never had a set. I mean, I've never been psychos. I mean, they hired Evan and I went to Princeton. They hired a Princeton PhD to say that my parenting was unconscionable and that I should

have had my daughter admitted to a psych institute, institution. But they didn't end up bringing any of those people to trial. And at trial, I will never forget when opposing. counsel, this very cocky jerk, very cocky jerk, pulls up our map of our diagram of all the mold in our house. We had, we basically took a floor plan. We labeled all the places where there was mold. I'll show you a picture. And he put it up there and he said to the jury, I'm not going to tell you that there wasn't mold in the house. And he used my diagram to say that. Because when it comes down to it, when the rubber hits the road, they can't look at the jury and lie. They can't

take that evasive cover-up approach. They're not going to get up there and actually say that the victim has a somatic disorder. But they're going to do it every day until the end. So this notion that the jury believed me, believed us, was everything. And that's what I try to do. to give to our clients, this notion that you're believed. You came to the right place. We believe you. It starts with that. You know, to pull on that threat of belief, at the beginning of your journey, you had doctors, again, many well-intentioned, but undereducated on the impact that mold and other environmental toxins can have on the body. They didn't believe that something was going on. They said you were stressed, that you were depressed.

Again, they were doing the best that they knew and they were undereducated. And that really goes to our larger medical system and getting the word out about mold, which this podcast is doing, many other podcasts that you've been on are doing as well. And then you go to court, even before that I'm sure you tried to have discussions with the parties that were responsible, the roofers, the HVAC, the builders. and you weren't believed there. And then finally, to have a jury of your peers say, not only do we believe you,

but you've been wronged and we need to make this right. I can feel the relief, just as you explained it. But the other thing that was there is I saw an Instagram video that you made where you were talking about the verdict that was given to you and your family. and how the opposing counsel had said, you know what? Sometimes things happen in life that are bad and we need to pick ourselves up and be grateful.

You hinted at it a little bit earlier when you were talking about this. And you said, I am grateful because even though all these other people didn't believe me, you had to build your own almost underground network and team to not only believe you, but show you that you weren't crazy.

by pointing to the evidence that was there. Just talk a little bit about some of those team members that were part of helping you realize you weren't crazy and there was something physiologically going on in your body and that your house was slowly poisoning you. So I believe you mentioned the first one, who was the original mold inspector. Well, the first one was the doctor,

who, doctor, her name's Gabriella Picardo, Dr. Picardo in Austin. And I was actually the first person that she diagnosed with mold illness. I give her so much credit because she, it could have been a host of things. They were running a battery of tests, Lyme disease, parasites, heavy metals, whatever. There was a whole host of things. And she included mycotoxins and mold on her differential diagnosis as trying to figure out what's going on with me.

and she thought that I had all the symptoms. So she's my first hero. I think she saved my life. And then Tim Taylor, who came into my house and sat on my couch. Because I had had a mold inspector earlier who came in and looked around and said, looks good. Didn't do a single test. He just was like, yeah, this actually looks like great construction, great house.

It's a beautiful house. I don't think you're being exposed here. And Tim Taylor wasn't supposed to come that day because I had canceled the appointment because I already had the other guy. And he didn't get my message that he had been canceled. Wow. So that was just divine intervention because we never would have figured it out. We would have carried on. So Tim Taylor. And then I started trying to really figure out what was going on with my kids. And there's this woman named Dr. Emily Gutierrez who helped me with their care. But my son, he's never been diagnosed with autism, but he had a lot of delays. And one of the

places that we escaped to was upstate New York. And I tried to take a time off work, and I tried to get everybody healthy. And I reached out to this underground kind of network on on Facebook, this group of families. And a woman had posted about a kid who had been cured of the symptoms that had led that kid to have an autism diagnosis. Her name was Emily Rachel. And she was my next lifeline because she's the one who told me that healing was possible. And she introduced me to Josh Rachel, her husband, who came in and he's a mold inspector and works all over the country.

So he became my next hero. And then there was an HVAC expert. I mean, I can go on and on all day. But when we think about bad things happening, I tell my kids to look for the helpers. Look for the helpers. And be one if you can. and those were my those were our helpers and oh there were so many and they were so good they were so good bob mckee was a lawyer in florida again i couldn't find anyone in texas who know anything about this

kavin taraza is a great texas lawyer but he's not a personal injury lawyer by training and i paid him hourly um as a friend to do this with me um but bob mckee was the only other mold experienced lawyer who took my call. And he just consulted for free. And he just picked up the phone when I called whenever it was. And he would talk to me for an hour about whatever was going on in the case. And ultimately, I invited him to join our team. But there was a long time in there where he was just doing it for free.

And that's what it was. It was this village of people who cared about our family. And when this happens to you, and toxic exposure generally, this is my other cases too. You become part of a club that you never wanted to join, but there are people who cannot wait to help you. And you just have to believe that they're there and you have to find them. And I'm so thankful we found ours. Not only did you guys find yours and many of those people you're still in touch with, some of

them you now work with, as you mentioned, but you made a commitment to pay it forward and be that person for other families. Give us the big picture on the current case that you're going through where no longer is it just one builder, one HVAC company, but it's actually you versus the government? I was working for DOJ when I started this law firm. Department of Justice. The Department of Justice. I left the Department of Justice where I was doing personal injury defense for the United States to start this law firm. And I called it just well. I had one paralegal. It was just Pam and me. I told her I could pay her for a year. That was as much as I could do, right? And we didn't know where our first case was going to come from. But the week after we launched our little website, CNBC did a story on my family that we had not planted, by the way. That was just they had reached out to us. But the story linked to my website. And I got a thousand.

calls in two weeks. Incredible. Because there is such a need for this kind of law. And there were so many others who, like me, were just desperate for help. And one of those calls was from Hawaii. And they said, I've been poisoned. Can you help? And I had just been with some military families advocating to Congress about military

housing. So I knew what had happened in Hawaii. The government had a huge – the government had a huge jet fuel blast. The jet fuel contaminated the water system. The government knew that it had gotten into the water. They had hundreds of reports that the fuel was in the water. And they told people that the water was safe. They issued a press release that there's no indication the water was not safe.

So people continued to use this contaminated water. They got very sick. So I fly over to Hawaii. I mean, I had, Drew, I had my personal credit card and my cowboy boots. I mean, we had nothing, right? And I held my first town hall and I got on social media and I started speaking out about what was happening because I saw it in real time. The government was saying people weren't sick and this was not a problem and it was

just in and out of people's bodies and don't worry, it's just a little jet fuel. And I was seeing sick people. and I recognized them because that was me. I was still on my own recovery journey. So I passed them the mic and I would hold these town halls and I would invite the media and I would broadcast them publicly and I'd say, you know, come and listen to their stories. These people are sick. This is real.

And there was a group of people in Hawaii who said, we are going to make this stop, never again. And we filed what I believe to be the first success. environmental toxin case against the United States. And the government has now admitted liability and we're fighting about damages right now. This little law firm with me and one paralegal has now grown to 18 and we represent 7,500 people who were poisoned by the United States of America. Just in this one case with this one jet fuel explosion incident. This one case. This one case.

Yeah. And these are people who are saying never again. Because just like me, they're not just doing it for their own families. They're doing it for all the other families. They're doing it for all the other people who are on Navy water lines. All the other people who live in military housing, they're saying we cannot poison our own people. We cannot be mission ready if we're sick. We have to enforce the safety rules in this country.

And the only way you do that is, or I should say one of the ways you do that is the justice system. And that's what we're doing. And we're going to change the system. You talked about how your own health was impacted by exposure to environment to toxins, specifically mold. Are there stories that came back to you about these families? and what was happening with them with this exposure to the contaminated water that you had mentioned that the government knew that they were exposed to from this jet fuel blast? We talked earlier about the cytokine storm that happens when you're exposed to toxins.

And that happens really no matter what the toxin is. So yes, it's a little bit different if it's jet fuel or if it's round up. or whatever it is, there are slightly different, slight differences. But ultimately, it's that same chronic systemic inflammation that occurs. And it attacks the brain. So I saw clients who had exactly the same symptoms that I had. The brain fog. The feeling like they had been hit by a truck.

The confusion, the attention challenges. The vestibular dysfunction was a big one. short-term memory loss. And then, of course, the GI system, right, because they ingested the jet fuel. Unlike toxic exposure for toxic mold, you smell it, and of course, you get dermal exposure and everything. But in this case, they ingested fuel. So their esophagus and their GI system has been wrecked in many cases. And then they had babies with burns. There were, there were military officers on November 28th of 2021 texting pictures of babies with severe burns or rashes and receiving hundreds of reports of fuel in the water. People called from all over the water line.

and yet those same people issued the press release that said there's no indication the water is not safe. So they knew that there were babies that were affected and yet they had the audacity to say publicly, don't worry, your water is fine. There is no indication it's not safe. It's outrageous and we have to hold them accountable and we can't continue to gas. our people. If you watch the news or the tweets from politicians and legislators, you would feel that there's nothing more patriotic than having the backs of our military and military families.

What circumstances led to the situation that the government would say, knowing that it wasn't true that the water was. safe. Every institution wants to protect itself. You saw that with the insurance companies. They go into self-protective mode. And the same was true with the government. They wanted to protect this military asset. To them, the asset of the jet fuel tanks, this facility called Red Hill, was more important than the people. Just that's the answer. They had to protect itself. The government had to protect itself. The Navy had to protect itself. They didn't want people to know that there had been this huge blast, which was, by the way, because of their own negligence, because of their own failures.

They wanted to protect their own reputations and they wanted to protect the asset and ultimately asset over people is what it came down to. And I've had the benefit, the pleasure, really, of deposing all these government officers, many of them. And deposing, I've had the pleasure and benefit of deposing military doctors and good people who work for the government. And if you ask them, do you agree that if the government provides water, it must provide safe water? Of course, of course, yes.

Do you agree that if the government contaminates the water, which should never do, see the first rule, it must let you know right away, must let us know right away, to protect all of us from mayhem, illness, cancer, death? Every one of them, of course. Well, the government was providing the water. There was fuel in the water. The government contaminated the water and then didn't tell people not to use it. This case is not rocket science. It's, and for that reason, it's such a blessing to be a part of.

It's a pretty simple case. The government contaminated the water. People used enough water to get sick. The government didn't tell them not to use it because the government was protecting itself. It's not hard. And now the government needs to make it right. and the case is really about giving the government the opportunity to make it right. So I'm a patriot.

I'm patriotic. I think that this is actually what the law is for. And this is what the tort law is for the federal tort claims act that allows you to bring cases against the United States. How much does the aspect of it's not my job play in? into the component that you already mentioned, which is a big driver, which is we need to make sure we don't get into trouble. We need to protect the asset. How much of lack of responsibility is, hey, that's not our job.

That was somebody else's job. Does that play into this at all? Absolutely. Because every government officer wants to say it was somebody else's job. somebody else had the obligation to tell the people. Somebody else had the obligation to go check to see if this huge blast that leaked for 36 hours got into the water source. Somebody else had the opportunity or the obligation to shut down the water.

How easy would that have been? There was this huge blast on November 20th, 36 hours of spewing jet fuel. How easy would it be? have been to just turn off the water source. Just protect the water from that fuel. This is not hard people, and they didn't do it because they didn't want to admit that it happened. So it's very upsetting. It's very upsetting. And what's very upsetting now is that the government is still gaslighting people. Because the government is still saying, okay, we take responsibility for what happened. There was a spill. It got into the water. But in the case itself, the government lawyers

are claiming that there wasn't even enough fuel to make people sick in the short term. That's insane. 4,600 people had medical encounters before the government admitted that the water line was contaminated. 4,600 people. Clearly it caused short-term harm. And, and, and the government is making the same claim that this was just a somatic response. People had a somatic response to maybe the fuel smell. I show them the picture of the baby. Are those baby burns a somatic response? So this is gaslighting at the highest levels and it continues. And that's what's so upsetting. Because when are we going to start to deal with the reality of what happened at Red Hill? when are you going to acknowledge what happened, the harm?

When are you going to acknowledge the harm? What happened at Red Hill is a representation of a much bigger problem that I'd love for you to talk about. These may seem like isolated incidents, both your own home. And we mentioned that millions of homes, especially under the new building standards, that are highly energy efficient, that are keeping you in a, energy-efficient toxic chamber, and again, based on the World Health Organization's own estimates, which are on the conservative side, that one-third of buildings have some form of toxic mold inside of them, or mold that can be problematic to health. In that same way, there are also

potentially other military bases and housing bases that have their own challenges. Can you talk a little bit about this case and how it's really a canary in the coal mine of what's going on out there. Well, the Secretary of Defense was asked about mold and housing. You know what he said? I don't have a mold problem. I have a soldier problem. He blamed it on the people who are sick. So this is coming from the very, very top. And there's this sense of, well, these people are a little bit crazy. Really, that's what it is. These people are just making a mountain out of a molehill. They're somatic. We cannot be mission ready in this country if our military and our military families are sick. We have a war in Israel right now.

The Middle East is very, we're on the precipice, right? We have to have a fit and healthy military. And they cannot be fit and healthy if we are poisoning them. This is not rocket science. They need, at the minimum, clean air and clean water. That is a basic human right for all of us, but it's especially essential for our military and our military families. and it's a problem on every military base, either the water or the error or both.

And the military leadership turns a blind eye because they're committed to just saying, this is just a somatic problem. It's deeply upsetting. And it's gasolating. It's gasolating. But what I am trying to do is point to the facts. And in Hawaii at the time, I would hold these town halls. and I'd invite the media, and I'd pass the mic to my clients, hear from them directly

because they can no longer be silenced. And that's what we need to continue to do, tell the stories, but also provide the actual evidence and the medical literature. And for mold in particular, I went to PubMed, right? there are 2022, 2021, 2021, I'm sure there are going to be 24, peer-reviewed articles about the dangers of toxic mold and toxic water. And we have to, we have to point to them and show government leadership the facts and say, this is what is happening scientifically to people. This is not somatic. This is real. After MSNBC did that story on your family, you had mentioned you got a call in one of those calls

led you to be an advocate and represent the families that are part of this case in Hawaii. Since that time period, you guys have expanded the type of cases that you're going to be involved in. And you're spreading the word. And part of that is coming on this podcast and telling your story, which is exciting for me because so many families truly feel like there's no hope and they don't know who to turn to. They don't know what resources are out there for them. And they end up suffering in silence and sort of giving up on having anybody be accountable if there was somebody to be accountable. Give us an idea, just big picture of some of the other areas that you guys will be tackling. I want to help anyone who is sick because somebody else made them sick, right? Somebody else made a

choice that led to, and mostly families, to this family becoming sick, right? And that can be, that is mostly toxic air and toxic water. But it can be any toxic substance. It can be red food dry, food die, right? I want us to hold the companies accountable for poisoning our bodies. whatever that is. And what we're finding when you dig in is that these companies know. Almost always they know, whether it's the government or the whoever it is,

whoever the wrongdoer is, whether it's a company or the government, they know what they're doing. And we need to say as a society, no more. you cannot get away with it anymore. You cannot make this financial calculus that you're just going to do it anyway because we're going to be there.

And we're going to be there. And this is how my firm is changing it. In the day, you would tell clients, don't go on social media. You know, don't be careful what you say. Don't put yourself out there. I'm like, here's a mic. Here's a connection to Fox News. Here's, you know, CNBC.

I want my clients to tell their stories because that's one way we bring accountability. That's why, I believe, that's why the Navy is now defueling that Red Hill facility. Because the public, the public got involved. So we have to fight these things in court and we have to fight them in public and we have to fight them on social. and when we do all those things at once, I think we will bring real change. And that's what we're about. But if you're listening and you're affected by really anything, we're committed to answering the call because no one returned to my call. So we have this philosophy that we will return your call no matter what, no matter where you are, no matter what you're faced with. We will point to

resources if we can help. We will refer to other lawyers if we can. We want to raise up a network, an army of lawyers to take these cases for people who have been harmed by environmental toxins or others. And we want to help. Well, Christina, even coming on this podcast and sharing your story and putting yourself out there and talking about what you and your family have gone through is again a big help for so many people who are listening. I can't tell you how many people I personally know that never felt that they had anywhere to turn to. And maybe for a combination of different reasons, their case may not be the right fit.

There's statute of limitations. There's a lot of different reasons why somebody's case may not be a fit right now. But knowing that there's a firm like yours and that a lawyer like you, exist who's gone through this and been on the patient side of things, I can only imagine that brings so many individuals hope. I would love for you to share any lasting thoughts you want to leave our audience with, as well as how they can be in touch with you on this journey of you being an advocate for families out there. I want to talk to your listeners who are sick right now and are in an environment that they know is toxic. Whatever you do,

get out. Because the number one thing that you can do for your health is to get out of the contamination. And I have a client who did not leave the house I told her to leave, and she died at the age of 31 in the house I told her to leave. Environmental toxins are very dangerous and they can kill you ultimately. So do not subject yourself or your family to toxic water or toxic air. It will slowly kill you or it'll leave you close to dead. And my prayer for you, if you're in that place, is that you would get out, that you would get help,

that you would find your helpers, and that you would get well, and that a year from now, you would be well enough to help somebody else. And it's by helping somebody else that our creator redeems our stories. and I have the privilege of helping others. And my creator is redeeming our family's story through the work that we can do now. So that's really the message that I want to leave. Get out of contamination.

Find your helpers. And get well enough to help others. A powerful reminder. You are super active. on social media, how can people stay in touch with you, follow along the journey, follow the case that's happening in Hawaii, follow along the other cases that you'll represent, and also how can they get in touch with the law firm if they feel they might have a case that they want you guys to take a look at?

Our firm is at well. That's our website and our social handle is at just well law. on Instagram and Christina Bear on Facebook. Follow me. I want to be in touch. I want to know other survivors. I want to lift one another up. I want to, you know, slowly redeem these stories so that we change the environment and people

become well. Well, I know you're on your way to Hawaii. And I wish you all the best in this case. I want to say that it was a pleasure and honor for us to get a chance to meet in person and to really truly hear your story and present it to my audience that I know is cheering for you and all the families that you represent. Thank you. Hi, everyone.

Drew here. Two quick things. Number one, thank you so much for listening to this podcast. If you haven't already, subscribe, just hit the subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. And by the way, if you love this episode, it would mean the world to me. And it's the number one thing that you can do to support this podcast is share with a friend. share with a friend who would benefit from listening. Number two, before I go, I just had to tell you about something that I've been working on that I'm super excited about.

It's my weekly newsletter, and it's called Try This. Every Friday, yes, every Friday, 52 weeks a year, I send out an easy-to-digest protocol of simple steps that you or anyone you love can follow to optimize your own health. We cover everything from nutrition to mindset to metabolic health, sleep, community, longevity, and so much. more. If you want to get on this email list, which is, by the way, free and get my weekly step-by-step protocols for whole body health and optimization, click the link in the show notes that's called Try This, or just go to Drew Perot.com. That's D-H-R-U-P-U-R-O-H-I-T.com and click on the tab that says, try this.