A woman has told an inquest how she pleaded with her local council to help her family move out of their mould-filled home before her son’s death.
Luke Brooks, 27, died last October after getting an acute respiratory illness, an inquest in Rochdale was told on Monday.
His mother, Patricia, told the coroner that the house they shared with a friend and Luke’s cousin in Oldham, Greater Manchester, had a number of problems from when they moved in, in 2014, including a lack of heating, a leaking roof and issues with mould.
She claimed the private landlord she rented from did nothing to help, adding she was in hospital in 2019 with pneumonia.
Mrs Brooks also explained to the court that environmental health officers did not take her concerns seriously once she left the hospital, prompting her to ask the council for a social housing place.
Mrs Brooks was asked by her barrister what she said to Oldham Council while discussing a move to social housing, to which she replied: “For God’s sake, will you please get us out of that house before someone dies.
“And, a couple of months later, somebody did, because it nearly killed me in 2019. I’m lucky to be here now.”
Mrs Brooks agreed she was not on a waiting list for a social housing move at the time of her son’s death, instead alleging she had been told to “just keep bidding” for council homes.
The coroner also heard Mr Brooks had not really been ill in his life before he developed the condition which led to his death.
His mother said it began with a “sniffle and a little cough”, and he died just weeks later.
Describing her son as “happy-go-lucky” and “funny, witty, intelligent, clever”, Mrs Brooks told the court he did not work and mostly played video games in the room he shared with his friend.
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The coroner, Joanne Kearsley, stressed the importance to witnesses of not speculating about the “cause of any virus that Luke may have had or the source of it”.
Ms Kearsley also ruled last year that two-year-old Awaab Ishak died in Rochdale as a result of a respiratory condition caused by mould in his home.
Mrs Brooks told Ms Kearsley she never realised mould could be harmful until she heard about Awaab’s case.
She said: “I didn’t know mould could kill people until I saw that little boy.”
