10 On Your Side investigates a mold problem in a health care facility

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10 On Your Side investigates a mold problem in a health care

facility

WAVY-TV - Portsmouth,VA

http://www.wavy.com/Global/story.asp?S=5167627 & nav=23ii

10 on your side goes in-depth looking into a Hampton nursing home

accused of having poor living conditions.

A resident's son says the staff does its job, but they and their

patients - including his mother - are at risk, because of what's

growing on the walls.

From the street, Coliseum Park Nursing Home in Hampton looks groomed

and well-tended. But look beyond the surface,

One man says, peel back a layer and you'll find this, he says: mold.

Wedding, the son of a nursing home patient said: " oh no it's

not just my mom's room - it's all over the building. "

Wedding says he took pictures of the mold under wallpaper in his

mother's room at Coliseum.

The 84 year old woman suffers from Alzheimer's.

Her son says mold spots dot her ceiling and hallways.

Furthermore, multiple air conditioners are broken - sitting

outside. The ice cooler is rusted and, Wedding says, also moldy.

These are just a few of the poor living conditions, he says, and

Wedding will pay Coliseum more than $4,000 a month once her

medicare runs out.

" -and for $4,500 I expect to live in a place that's clean, mold free

and not falling apart. "

The administrator of Coliseum declined to speak on camera but says

she was not aware of a mold problem until a recent complaint. One

visitor, though, was positive.

" I think it's a very clean place " said visitor Ann Hawk.

She says she comes to Coliseum monthly to see friends.

" The patient I'm visiting seems to be very happy. "

State health department officials also declined to speak about

Coliseum, citing confidentiality laws. But their most recent

inspection in May resulted in just two minor violations.

However an inspection in April 2005 listed several serious

violations for Coliseum involving patients in 'actual harm' as the

documents detail.

The same report also shows the dates Coliseum corrected the problems.

Corrections, Wedding says, that did not include curing a sick

building.

" I really think they need to be shut down. "