A young mum said she is "terrified" of the mould in her home after her baby daughter suffered breathing issues.
Chloe Bradbery, 20, lives with her eight-month-old daughter Arabella in a Derwent Living home in Derby.
She moved into the property in February when she was pregnant and initially everything seemed to be fine.
However, within days she started to notice mould on the ceiling of her bedroom and bathroom and contacted the landlord.
She said she was told by Derwent Living to spray the area with mould remover and to call them again if it grew back, Derbyshire Live reports.
Her baby Arabella was born in March and when she was less than two months old, she started struggling to breathe so Chloe called an ambulance.
The baby was taken to hospital and put on oxygen after being diagnosed with bronchiolitis, an infection of tubes in the lungs that supply them with air from the windpipe.
Bronchiolitis is a common chest infection that affects children under the age of two and usually gets better on its own, but can be more serious.
The girl eventually recovered and returned back home, but by that time the mould had grown back.
Derwent Living sent some workers to assess the issue and apply more spray, but Chloe said the issue got even worse.
Just a month later, the mum called 999 as Arabella had started "choking in her sleep".
The baby was taken to hospital again and put on a feeding tube as well as being given oxygen, as she refused to eat.
Chloe said: "It was just horrible to have to see my daughter put on oxygen. It was so scary. I genuinely thought at one point she was going to die. If your baby is sucking in, they’re struggling for air. She was struggling so hard to breathe.
"We stayed at my mum's for two nights afterwards as we didn’t want to go back. It’s traumatising for her as well, because in order to give her the feeding tube they have to pin her down while she’s screaming."
In November, Arabella experienced another episode of bronchiolitis, after which a doctor wrote a letter the mum could provide to Derwent Living.
It read: "Arabella has presented to Children's ED on 20/11/22 with a third episode of bronchiolitis. This is a respiratory disorder. I understand from Arabella's mother that there is a mould and damp issue at home. I would be grateful if you could assist the family with management of this. Mould and damp can be contributors to respiratory illness in children."
Chloe rang Derwent Living again and offered to send them a copy of the letter, but says she was told they "didn’t need it".
The mum received a visit by Derwent Living representatives yesterday but said she is "terrified" that the mould issue might get worse in the coming months as the weather remains cold and went.
Chloe said: "I'm terrified that it’s going to get worse. That she’s going to get bronchiolitis and it’s just going to take it all out of her. I don’t know how much more those lungs can take. They’re only little. You don’t know if she’s going to be alright this time or whether it’s going to get worse.
"If they’d sorted this all out earlier, it might not’ve got to this point. She might not’ve had to go through everything she has. They told me they couldn’t rush any because there’s so many houses they need to look at.
"But you’d expect better. I first rang in February. I just feel like we’ve been forgotten. You’d expect them to do something when they know there’s a baby ill in the house."
Chloe’s resorted to moving her’s and her daughter’s beds to the middle of the room - the only place in which they can avoid water dripping on them from the leaking corners in the night.
She’s been told to keep her windows open to try and ventilate the rooms to eradicate the mould - but fears exposing Arabella to the cold winter temperatures will put her in danger again.
While demonstrating where the mould is located in her flat, Chloe notices a new significant damp spot above the shelf in her wardrobe.
“It gets better every day,” she says, sarcastically.
A neighbour reports that the entire block has had similar issues with mould, to the point where the roof of the entire building was replaced a few years ago. It has solved their issues.
But Chloe has been in the attic of her flat and says she’s noticed light coming through the roof. She says that no one has ever been up there to look at it when they’ve been round. The neighbour also says that the previous two tenants of Chloe’s flat moved out due to damp and mould.
A spokesperson for Derwent Living said: "Getting the right outcome for Miss Bradbery and her daughter is the most important thing and we are working closely with Miss Bradbery on this. Following her initial call to us, we visited her home on 28 November and scheduled in her follow-up repairs for as soon as we could, based on our assessment of the work needed on that date.
"However, following our visit on 28 November the situation at Miss Bradbery’s home escalated so to address immediate concerns, we tried to visit Miss Bradbury’s home on Friday and spoke to her that afternoon.
"We also offered a move for Miss Bradbury to a different property, which she doesn’t want to do. We visited today (Monday, December 12) and are in the process of rectifying the issues. Miss Bradbury is happy with this."
