Donate to Restore the Kreider Family's Home and Lives

My name is Kyle Draheim and I appreciate you taking the time to read about this fundraiser. This fundraiser is being supported by me for my sister Kathryn Kreider and her family during this catastrophically devastating time.

On August 25th, the Kreider family left their home when her entire family was sick. Jaxon (8) was in the middle of a severe reaction to an antibiotic and while resting with him, Katie started breaking out in hives. She looked up and noticed mold in her supply vent cover. The answer to all their illnesses that doctors couldn’t figure out for years.

This was so devastating to them because 6 months prior, they had their home inspected for mold and had an air quality test done. They were told there was no elevation inside their home. Even through all the phone calls of my sister in tears just crying through the detrimental pain, I still can’t imagine what she was actually feeling. To have believed their home was safe, just to realize how toxic it was. Reality hit her hard, and all I could do was listen.

Over the next 5 weeks, they were homeless, living off the kindness of their friends, who opened their homes to their family of 6. There was mold in their crawlspace that infiltrated their HVAC systems. Their entire house and all belongings were contaminated. This remediation has cost them over $30,000 and they drained their savings account and business account to come up with the money to pay for it. It was supposed to last 2.5 weeks, and they are now on week 9. Every time they turn around, it’s just been another thing to deal with. During this time, they have had to replace 2 HVAC units, supply trunks, return vents, flex hoses, clean and encapsulate the crawlspace, and dispose of 98% of their belongings. They have had to replace their refrigerator and are sleeping on air mattresses. During the middle of replacing their HVAC return, they were alerted to their 1/2 bath soaking water through the subfloor into the crawlspace and have had to gut that bathroom. Then, their well pump pressure switch caught fire.

These four children left their home one day with nothing except the clothes on their backs. They arrived back home to no HVAC, 1000 sq feet of their home ripped down to subfloors, and holes in their walls from removing mold from drywall around vents and checking other wall cavities for anything missed. They came home to a dumpster in their driveway filled 5x over with their entire childhood and lives going to a landfill. During this time, the children who have been sensitized to mold continued reacting very strongly at their school. For their health, Katie and the kids' provider deemed it necessary to place the kids on homebound instruction to limit exposure. So these children currently don’t even have an outlet to go to get away from the constant reminder of their lives being forever changed.

My sister has reached out to the programs within the community and has received little assistance. She received an in-home therapist for the children and an $80 clothing voucher for a thrift store that had minimal kids' clothes. It is my hope and desire that this fundraiser can raise money to help them start over.

Any money raised will be used for the following:

Getting their family warm winter clothes and coats; replacing the floors in their house that they had to rip out so the kids can have their own bedrooms back; buying mattresses and replacing necessary furniture; seeing a functional medicine provider who is literate in mold toxicity; possible homeschooling supplies and curriculum.

Even a $10 donation could provide one of the kids with something warm to wear.

We greatly appreciate any donations to help this sweet family be able to begin to live again. To learn more about mold and their story, continue reading below.

This family of 6 has been through some major health struggles for 3.5 years. Each person in this family has their own story and path they went on.

Reed, at 4 years old, started with asthma exacerbations every 6-8 weeks when he started preschool. They were awful. They lasted 3 weeks and always resulted in the need for systemic steroids. They were told, “Kids get sick when they start school, give his body time.” That summer, Reed was asymptomatic. When Reed started kindergarten, his frequency of exacerbations doubled. Reed underwent multiple tests, PFTs, bronchoscopy, impedance probe, trials with medications, all to no avail of relieving his symptoms. After 18 months of being followed by one of the best children’s hospitals in our country, after seeing 6 different specialists, their pulmonologist gave up. She couldn’t help him. Had no idea why every test came back normal and yet this child was so, so sick. Can you imagine watching your child go into slow onset respiratory distress over and over again, and not having any other option to help him and not knowing what was causing it?

My sister essentially was able to keep him stable by constantly listening to his lungs and marking her calendar for when the next one would hit. At one point, it was on average every 21 days Reed required systemic steroids to remain breathing.

My sister wasn’t giving up. She demanded answers. She took him to a new children’s hospital and demanded no antibiotics without a positive culture for what they were treating and no systemic steroids unless for life-saving measures. It worked. She found a pulmonologist who was able to control him enough to keep him off steroids for 4 months over this past summer. The longest streak they had in 3 years. He was placed on steroids again after developing strep week 2 of 1st grade.

Alexis also started preschool at the same school when she was 4. In December, 4 months into attending the children’s school, Alexis developed ear infections. She had 6 ear infections back to back in 8 weeks. This poor sweet girl couldn’t go more than 24-48 hours without an antibiotic before the infection reared its ugly head again. This was only stopped by removing her adenoids and placing tubes. Once the ear infections stopped, Alexis started presenting like Reed, with asthma exacerbations requiring systemic steroids constantly, every 3 weeks.

During the same time Alexis was battling ear infections, Jaxon (8) started with his symptoms. This previously healthy boy started wheezing constantly every breath he took for four months straight. Every inhaler these doctors placed him on made his situation worse with additional side effects. He then presented with headaches, ocular migraines, rebound congestion, and just this overall unwell feeling. After 13 medical providers blew my sister off, and during one weekend of a hospital stay for a CT scan, after his bronchoscopy came back normal, my sister demanded they end his inhalers.

Once he was off them, Jaxon improved. The wheezing stopped, and the congestion was cut in half within 48 hours. Jaxon remained mostly stable until August when he was placed on an antibiotic for a sinus infection. This antibiotic this child had received many times prior did him in this time. His entire face swelled up, eyes swollen, rash all over his body.

My sister found herself once again having to fight these doctors to advocate for her children. She demanded it was not poison ivy like they were trying to say. She refused to place him on a Z-Pak which would remain in his system even after he quit taking it. She couldn’t believe the lack of safety these providers had for treating him. During this time of recovering from this episode, they went ahead and did tonsil and adenoid removal. This child for 3 weeks was itching insanely from the rash, while being in significant pain from the surgery, all while they were homeless.

Jacob (14) is a very athletic teenager. His love and passion for running cross country was ripped away from him when he couldn’t even walk up a flight of stairs at his worst. This boy was healthy! He maybe caught a virus once a year. Until January when the rhinovirus took him down, and he’s yet to fully recover. He would stand at the top of the stairs after walking up them, wincing in pain from his chest hurting and burning. He could no longer live the active life he once knew. Inhalers did not help, breathing exercises did not help, hydration did not help. Nothing helped.

While dealing with all these kids and their medical issues, my sister ignored her own. After leaving their home, she decided if she was to save her kids, she had to take care of herself too. Upon testing from her doctor, they located a nodule on her left lung during a CT scan. That led to a PET scan which confirmed an 11mm nodule, along with gallstones and a lesion in her lower abdomen.

This fundraiser is so important to me because I know my sister can’t help herself until she knows her kids are okay, and my sister deserves the time and resources to deal with her own health issues as well.

What about the dad? Jeff has had minimal effects from the mold. Many things play into how sensitive people are. Previous exposure, genetics, health, etc.

The kids spent time at school which clearly contained mold, and then their own house. They were in exposure 24/7. Katie spent time at home and then other people’s homes cleaning them for her business. She has since had to cut back on cleaning significantly. When you get out of exposure, your body unmasks. It decides there isn’t a constant threat and relaxes. Then when you are exposed again, your symptoms come back, alerting you to the toxic environment. Places my sister used to clean and have no issue now cause her symptoms like severe itching, headaches, fatigue, nausea, and neurological issues. They now are down 1/4 of their income, as if everything else wasn’t enough.

How can some mold tear their lives apart? Mold releases mycotoxins, alive or dormant. It’s the mycotoxins that make people sick. There is no way to kill mold; you have to remove it. There is also no way to kill mycotoxins; they have to be removed as well. Hence why they have had to dispose of most of their belongings. There is no way to get mycotoxins out of porous items. Mycotoxins take years to denature over time. They have been able to make their air safe by running an air scrubber vented to the outside for over 1000 hours.

I remember Katie expressing what she felt after being out of their home for a week and entering it again. The air was so hostile. She was covered head to toe with a head covering, goggles, respirator, and Tyvek suit. After being in her home for 1 hour trying to sort through some belongings, she then was sick for a week. It’s amazing how something so naked to our eyes can be so detrimental to our health. How can it be?

How can an air quality test show their air was safe? Air quality testing misses most molds, especially the ones that are most toxigenic, being as they are so heavy and close to the ground. They are not a very useful test. Ermis will provide you with a good idea of the molds within a space if collected properly; however, it cannot indicate if the mold is a new problem or a past problem, alive or dormant. Swab and tape tests are useful in identifying the type of mold you see but are useless in painting a whole picture of a space. It is my hope, and I’m sure my sister’s hope, that even if you can’t financially help them, that they can help you. That reading their story and seeing what they went through, maybe it can help educate others and bring knowledge to this toxic problem most people are unfamiliar with.

We greatly appreciate any and all donations in supporting them and helping them get back on their feet during this time. We sincerely appreciate you sharing their story and helping them and possibly others by bringing light to this terrible catastrophe that others may be living in too. Please share!