'Extreme Makeover' family in Oregon; mother under 'medical child abuse' scrutiny

[bijou]

The world met the Cerda family two years ago when the ABC reality show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" showcased their story -- a generous, but struggling Las Vegas couple raising two daughters with serious immune disorders.

The girls, Molly and Maggie, wore face masks to guard against toxins and germs that might be harmless to healthy kids. The TV program paid to demolish the family's mold-filled house and replace it with an opulent new home that included high-quality air filtration systems, an elevator, solar-heated swimming pool, gourmet kitchen and floor-to-ceiling stone fireplace.

Chuck and Terri Cerda beamed as they viewed the haven, but their joy didn't last long.

They said they couldn't afford the increased cost of operating the larger home. By fall 2009, the house was for sale and the family moved to Oregon, where the parents that television producers found so compelling came under scrutiny.

A website created to benefit the Cerda children features a photo of Molly using a breathing machine. "Our house is a veritable hospital," Terri Cerda said in a video produced for the Immune Deficiency Foundation.
Several doctors and a hospital social worker began to question Terri Cerda's insistence that her daughters had chronic health problems when tests and examinations indicated otherwise. In January, Dr. Thomas Valvano, an OHSU Doernbecher Children's Hospital pediatrician who specializes in suspected child abuse and neglect, reported the Cerdas to state child-welfare authorities, and in February, the state took temporary custody of the two girls.
...

http://www.oregonlive.com/clackamascounty/index.ssf/2011/05/clackamas_county_a_case_of_med.html

[JohnnyReb]

Another couple of budding government tit sucking DUmmies.

[longview]

Heard of similar situation to other recipients of the Make Over homes. 

Can't afford the new house.  Increased stress.  Can't sell the odd places.  My sympathy to the kids.

[JohnnyReb]

The bleeding heart liberals got scammed.......

Some of the best actors in the world have never been on Broadway or been in a movie, they hang around the welfare office.

[shadeaux]

There was a home built in Mississippi.  You don't tear down a home in a ghetto and build a fantastic looking "mansion".  You just don't. Word was it's was broken into many times.

Then the lady it was built for died.  She seemed like a nice lady.  Had some kids that did well in school but I question putting a house like that in a neighborhood like that.  It was not going to work.

http://www.wapt.com/r/22014966/detail.html

You can see her before and after home in the video.

Plus, no one realizes your bills will go up with the new house.  Extreme Makeover doesn't pay for everything forever.