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How A Failing Boiler My Landlord Refused To Fix Caused My 6-Year-Old Son's Permanent Brain Damage — And Why I'm Breaking An NDA To Tell You About It
"My son lost 24 months of cognitive development in 11 months of CO exposure. The detector on my wall showed a green light the entire time."
— Maria S., Mother
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The Phone Call That Started Everything
The pediatric neurologist sat across from me in her exam room and slid a piece of paper across the desk.
She put her finger on a line near the top.
"This is where Diego was at his last assessment. Verbally advanced. Reading above grade level. Cognitive tests in the 88th percentile."
She moved her finger six inches down the page.
"This is where he is today."
I looked at the line her finger was pointing to.
"Six years old. Cognitive function consistent with a child of three years and ten months."
I sat in that chair and I did not move for a very long time.
She told me later that she had said other things in those minutes.
That she had explained the next steps.
That she had referred us to a developmental specialist.
I do not remember any of it.
I remember the line on the paper.
I remember thinking: my son lost two years of his life last winter and I did not know.
The investigation that followed identified the source.
A failing boiler in the basement of our apartment building.
CO levels in our unit averaging 14 PPM continuously since the heating system kicked on the previous November.
Eleven months of chronic exposure.
Through every winter morning I pushed Diego into his snowsuit.
Through every Saturday afternoon
I watched him forget the names of his preschool friends.
Through every pediatrician visit where
I was told it was probably allergies.
The CO detector on my wall had a green light the entire eleven months.
I am writing this article because the landlord's settlement offer required me to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
I refused to sign.
The landlord is still operating two other buildings in our city with the same equipment.
I cannot make him stop.
I can warn you.
The Apartment We Could Afford
When I divorced three years ago, I had to find an affordable apartment for me and my son Diego.
Paralegal salary. Diego was 4.
We needed two bedrooms in the school district where his preschool was.
I found a 2-bedroom unit in a 12-unit building. $1,250 a month. Older building. Listing photos looked clean.
I signed the lease in September.
The landlord owned three buildings in our city.
He didn't live in any of them. He communicated mostly through text messages.
The first three months were fine.
Then November came and the heat kicked on.
The Symptoms That Started
Diego started getting headaches in early November.
I assumed it was the change in seasons.
By December, the headaches were worse and Diego was tired all the time.
His preschool teacher mentioned he had been falling asleep during reading time.
I took him to his pediatrician. Routine blood work.
Everything came back normal. Doctor said it might be allergies. Recommended Zyrtec.
By January, I was getting headaches too.
By February, my own primary care doctor was running blood work on me.
Everything came back normal.
He suggested it might be stress-related from the divorce.
By March, Diego was forgetting things he had known for months.
His vocabulary was decreasing. His preschool teacher pulled me aside and recommended developmental evaluation.
The developmental specialist did a full battery of tests in early April.
Diego had regressed approximately 18 months in cognitive development since November.
The specialist asked me about environmental exposures. Lead paint.
Mold. Anything in our home that might have changed.
I told her the apartment was old but seemed fine.
She told me to have it tested.
The Two-Sentence Truth
Read these two sentences slowly.
Sentence One: "The detector your landlord installed was selected because it was cheapest. It was designed to ignore the levels damaging your child's brain."
The CO detector in my apartment was a basic residential unit my landlord had installed at the lowest cost option.
It was designed to UL 2034 standards.
Under those standards, the detector is required to ignore concentrations below 30 PPM completely.
It is required to wait up to 240 minutes before alarming at 70 PPM.
The CO levels in my apartment — confirmed later by the city inspector
averaged 14 PPM in our living room with spikes higher near Diego's bedroom.
That level absolutely caused my son's neurological regression.
That level will never trigger a UL 2034 detector to alarm.
The detector on my wall worked exactly as designed.
What it was designed to do was ignore the levels that were damaging Diego's brain.
Sentence Two: "The legal system cannot help you until the harm is permanent. By then your child's developmental potential is already lost."
I called the city building department in mid-April.
I asked for a CO inspection.
The intake person told me there was a 6-month waitlist for non-emergency inspections.
I asked her what counted as an emergency. She said visible smoke or actively unconscious occupants.
I asked her if my child's neurological regression counted as an emergency. She said no.
I called my landlord that afternoon.
I told him about Diego's diagnosis.
I asked him to please service the boiler in the basement.
He texted back four hours later. He told me the boiler had been
"serviced earlier this year" and the issue was probably my "lifestyle choices."
I emailed him a written request for an inspection of all gas appliances.
He did not respond.
I emailed my landlord three more times in May. No response.
In June, I started withholding 20 percent of my rent.
His collections attorney sent me a letter within ten days threatening eviction and credit damage.
I paid the back rent.
I kept calling the city building department every week.
The inspector finally came in October.
That was 11 months of chronic CO exposure for Diego.
By that point, Diego had lost approximately 24 months of cognitive development.
He had been a verbally advanced child before we moved in.
He was now barely communicating in full sentences.
What The Inspector Found
The inspector arrived on a Tuesday morning.
His name was David. He was older. Looked close to retirement.
He brought a professional CO meter into my apartment.
The reading rose immediately to 14 PPM in the living room.
He went into the basement to inspect the boiler.
He came back upstairs after about 45 minutes.
His face was different than when he had arrived.
He told me the boiler in the basement had a flue that had completely rusted through.
CO from combustion was venting directly into the basement air, then being pulled into the building's central heating system, then being distributed throughout the building.
He told me he was issuing an immediate red-tag order.
He told me his professional opinion was that the boiler had been failing for at least a year. Probably longer.
He told me my apartment had been chronically receiving CO concentrations between 8 and 20 PPM continuously since the heating system kicked on the previous November.
David walked with me to the parking lot after the inspection.
He told me to take Diego to a developmental pediatric specialist immediately. He told me he was sorry.
He told me he sees this multiple times a year.
He told me there's nothing he can do faster.
He drove away.
I sat in my car for an hour before I could drive Diego to my mother's house.
The Brain Damage Diego Cannot Recover From
The pediatric neurologist saw Diego in late October.
She confirmed chronic CO exposure was consistent with his neurological regression.
She put him on a hyperbaric oxygen treatment protocol — five sessions per week for six weeks.
She told me that some of Diego's cognitive losses might be reversible.
Some would not be.
The 24 months of developmental regression he experienced may translate into permanent intellectual disability that will affect him for the rest of his life.
He will be in special education throughout school.
He will probably never reach the cognitive potential he showed at age 4.
The landlord was fined $4,500 by the city for code violations.
He repaired the boiler in November.
He continues to operate his other two buildings without modification.
I sued him. The case is pending.
His attorneys offered a settlement that would cover Diego's medical expenses but not his lost developmental potential.
The settlement required me to sign a non-disclosure agreement preventing me from speaking publicly.
I refused to sign.
I am writing this article anyway.
The Detector I Bought For Our New Apartment
After we moved out in November, I rented a different apartment in a different building.
The first thing I did when we moved in was buy a low-level CO detector called Haven.
Haven alarms at 10 PPM. Not 70.
At 10 PPM I would have known something was wrong.
I would have moved out months earlier.
Diego would not have lost two years of cognitive development.
Haven shows the actual concentration on a screen at all times.
There is no green light. There is a number.
I have one in our living room. One in my bedroom. One in Diego's bedroom.
Three units. Three screens.
Three numbers I check every night before bed.
Three zeros.
If any of them ever shows anything other than zero,
I will leave the apartment that day. I will break the lease if I have to.
I will not let Diego be exposed again.
The Offer
Right now Haven is offering their best pricing:
2-Pack — $139 ($69.50 each) For your bedroom and your kid's bedroom. The two rooms where your family breathes the longest.
4-Pack — $219 ($54.75 each) — MOST POPULAR Full apartment coverage. Bedroom, kid's room, living room, kitchen. Every zone where shared HVAC distributes whatever the building is producing.
8-Pack — $379 ($47.38 each) Yours and your family's. Your apartment, your parents' apartment, your sister's, your kids' college dorm. Eight zones, one decision.
Every order includes:
✓ Free US Shipping
✓ 90-Day Money-Back Guarantee
✓ Lifetime Replacement Warranty
✓ Real-time PPM display + electrochemical sensor (10 PPM early warning)
Two Futures
If you rent and you trust the detector your landlord installed — you are not protected.
The detector is the cheapest unit that meets code.
It is designed to ignore the levels that damage children.
Your landlord's collections attorney is faster than your city building department.
The legal system cannot help you until your child's brain is already injured.
While your kids sleep.
While you sleep.
While the boiler in the basement does what it does.
CO has no smell. No color. No warning. No symptoms for weeks at the levels that hurt children.
Future One: Trust the detector your landlord installed. Tell yourself the kids' headaches are growing pains. Tell yourself your fatigue is just stress from the divorce or the new job or the bad year. Wait. Six months from now you sit in a developmental pediatrician's office hearing the same diagnosis I heard.
Future Two: Order Haven tonight. It arrives within a week. You plug it in. By morning you have the first real number that apartment has ever produced. If it shows zero, you have actual confirmation your family is safe. If it doesn't, you find out now — while there's still time to act.
What already happened to Diego cannot be undone.
What happens to your kids tomorrow can.
I couldn't.
You still can.
(I linked the detector I use below)
PROTECT YOUR KIDS' BRAIN TONIGHT →
"After Maria's article I bought a Haven for my apartment in Chicago. Reading 9 PPM the first day. Landlord refused to inspect. I broke my lease. New apartment shows zero. My kids get migraines that haven't come back. Get the monitor." — Tara R., Illinois
"Renter in a duplex. Bought Haven after I read about another mom's son. Reading 14 PPM continuously in the kitchen. Landlord finally serviced the gas dryer in the shared utility room. Reading dropped to zero. My kids stopped having headaches in two weeks. Get the monitor." — Yvette J., Texas
"Lived in my apartment for three years thinking the constant fatigue was depression. Bought Haven on a recommendation. 11 PPM in my bedroom. Building was a chronic problem. I moved out. I am sleeping again for the first time in three years. Get the monitor." — Tonia W., Michigan
If you aren’t taking Alpha BRAIN®, you are operating at a disadvantage.
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If you aren’t taking Alpha BRAIN®, you are operating at a disadvantage.
Find out why.
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Note: Haven is a residential carbon monoxide detector. If you suspect CO poisoning, leave the building immediately and call 911. This article reflects the personal experience of the author.
For a limited time, you can save up to 50% when you purchase a multipack of Haven.
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