Girl's Homecoming Delayed: Her House Could Kill Her
Mold Has Taken Over Family's Corona Home
December 27, 2002
ORANGE, Calif. -- The homecoming for hospitalized leukemia patient Camarae Casillas
is being delayed because her house could kill her.
The 14-year-old didn't get her wish to go home for Christmas after treatments
at Children's Hospital of Orange County because mold has taken over the family
home in Corona.
"She's really strong and focuses on what she needs to do," said her
mom, Elizabeth Casillas, 32. "But on Christmas, she was crying."
The teenager desperately wanted to go home for Christmas.
"I wanted to be with my family," Camarae said.
Doctors, who reported she was doing well with chemotherapy and won't need a
bone marrow transplant, said the girl could be ready to go home next week.
But she can't. Broken pipes in August flooded the family home and mold has now
invaded.
"We can't live there now. It's uninhabitable," Casillas said. "It's
not even safe for my other children."
Camarae's doctors said the girl's weakened immune system wouldn't be able to
handle exposure to mold and it could cause irreversible fungal infections in
her lungs.
"We are trying to find out if our home is even salvageable now," Mrs.
Casillas said. "If it isn't, then we'll have to give it up and move into
an apartment and start over."
When Camarae is released, the family plans to move into the Ronald McDonald
House in Orange. But only until the rooms are needed for another patient.
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