Hello. My sister is at her wits end. Her 58 or 59 year old husband has been living in a care home in Manchester since 12 Feb this year. He is deteriorating all the time. Problems for about 18 months now. Has had MRI and CT scans of the brain which may be global atrophy. Despite these scans they have done no investigation into why he has developed these problems. He can barely string a sentence together. He soils himself and doesn't realise. He hallucinates, believing people are going to kill him in the home. He wanders around the building incessantly. If he goes to speak to someone who has phoned him a carer has to stand next to him at all times because he doesn't understand what to do with the receiver. When someone tells him to put the piece to his mouth and speak into it, 20 seconds later he forgets how to use it and has to be told all over again. He has a psychiatrist, social worker, etc. The flat where my sister and her husband are living had a bad damp patch in the loft which had gone mouldy. It still hasn't been cleared away/sorted. My sister watched a documentary on TV which featured a US family with damp and mould in their home, which seriously affected the memory and brain capacity of the man living there. They hired experts who came in and took away samples of the mould. It was found to be a very rare mould called Stachybotris. It is also known as a Neuro Toxin. The toxic spores caused the man's memory problems and they were severe. ( If you want to watch the documentary you can see it on Youtube. It is called "Forensic Files. Season 7. Episode 37. Breaking the mold". My sister thinks there is a possibility the mould in their loft could be something similar to this and could be the cause of her husband's dementia. They haven't even formally told his wife what they think the actual problem is. At first they said it was Vascular Dementia. Then they were not sure. He has had no further investigations since the two scans months ago. He has deteriorated a lot since then. The care home want to move him to a different home due to his deterioration. I was telling this online to a Neurologist and described my brother in laws symptoms. He said it sounded it would fall under a Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome or CIRS. Should she write to the health authorities caring for her husband and give them this information? She has told every health professional about Stachybotris and has asked them to investigate if this could be the cause of his dementia. They all just dismiss her theory out of hand and treat her a bit like an idiot, for thinking her husband might be suffering from the same thing she saw on a tv programme. I am writing letters on my sister's behalf, as she doesn't have a computer and her handwriting is atrocious. Any advice at all about what I have said would be welcome. Many thanks. EDIT. My sister said that if after investigating if there is anything toxic in his brain due to the mould it transpires there isn't anything there and it is simply that her husband sadly has Early Onset Dementia then she will accept it and shut the hell up. ( Her words). However she said as long as the authorities are not taking what she says seriously and are not going to examine her husband thoroughly, then she will keep on about it to anyone and everyone who will listen.
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