Mercedes Brooke had always loved her long brown hair. So when it began falling out in clumps, without warning or explanation, she panicked.
At first, she searched for ordinary answers – stress, hormones, diet, even the water in her shower. But the hair loss didn’t stop. And it wasn’t the only thing that began to go wrong.
Over the following weeks, a series of strange symptoms appeared, faded, and returned again.
Some were easy to dismiss – while others were harder to explain.
Together, they marked the start of a steady physical decline that would leave the 28-year-old Colorado student desperately ill, frightened – and unsure why her body seemed to be failing her.
It was only later that Brooke began to connect her deteriorating health to a problem in her home.
In August 2024, she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Denver with her five-year-old Labradoodle, Berkley.
Within weeks, she noticed water dripping from the air-conditioning unit directly above her bed. She reported it immediately to the apartment management company, and got on with her life.
Several weeks after Mercedes Brooke (pictured here) moved into her Denver apartment in August 2024, her health deteriorated
Mercedes in the apartment which she claims gave her mold toxicity due to an AC unit the landlord allegedly refused to replace
The leak didn’t stop, however – and the issue dragged on for three months.
‘A month after the AC unit began leaking, I started getting these little bumps on my arms. I thought it was just allergies,’ Mercedes said.
Soon after, clumps of hair were left behind in the shower. At first, she blamed the water.
‘When I washed my hair, it started falling out in handfuls,’ she said. ‘I didn’t think much of it – until my dog started losing her hair too. That’s when I knew something was seriously wrong.’
Frustrated by months of unanswered complaints about the leak, Mercedes decided to investigate the unit herself – still unaware it might have anything to do with her worsening health. Inside, she says, it was ‘full of mold.’
By then, her health was rapidly unravelling.
Over the next few weeks, Mercedes lost around half her hair. She dropped roughly 15 pounds in a single month. Her menstrual cycle stretched on for an alarming two and a half months. She stopped sleeping. She began crying constantly.
Then she started vomiting blood.
The above images show where Brooke’s hair and fallen out (left) and rashes had spread on her arms and shoulders, which she claims was due to mold toxicity
Pictured above are mold samples taken from Brooke’s AC unit
Brooke, pictured with her dog, now says her health has returned to normal and is urging others in similar positions to speak up for themselves
‘I went to the hospital multiple times,’ she said. ‘I remember asking the doctor, ‘Do I have an autoimmune disease or cancer?’
At one point, Mercedes went home to stay with family for a week. The symptoms disappeared.
‘When I left the apartment, everything went away,’ she said.
It was at that moment she realized the mold inside the air conditioning unit might be the cause of her bizarre and distressing symptoms. ‘I knew it had to be something in the house,’ said Mercedes.
Despite repeatedly pleading with her landlord and management company to fix the problem, Mercedes says her complaints went unanswered. Even after medical tests showed she was suffering from mold toxicity, she claims they dismissed her concerns.
‘I was told I was being dramatic,’ she said.
Mold can begin growing within just one to two days in high-moisture environments such as air-conditioning units, dishwashers and ice makers.
While visible signs like staining and odors may take weeks or months to appear, exposure can begin long before mold is obvious.
There are several types of mold, some of which are more dangerous than others.
The most severe form, black mold, produces toxic compounds called mycotoxins. When inhaled repeatedly, these can trigger symptoms ranging from headaches, coughing and muscle pain to mood changes, cognitive impairment and immune system dysfunction.
When the body detects airborne toxins such as mold spores, the immune system launches an aggressive inflammatory response, releasing chemicals called cytokines. These circulate through the bloodstream, affecting multiple organs – including the brain and endocrine system – and can cause widespread tissue damage.
‘I got bloodwork done and told them I had mold in my house,’ Brooke said. ‘Every single type of mold came back significantly high.’
Doctors warned her the situation would only worsen if she stayed.
‘My doctor and my family told me, ‘If you don’t leave this apartment, you’re just going to keep getting sicker,’ she said.
Mercedes claims in total she sent around 300 emails, messages and phone calls to her landlord and management company asking them to address the issue. Eventually, she made the decision to end her lease early.
She moved out after seven months and launched legal action against the property company, alleging she had been forced to live in an uninhabitable environment. The case was privately settled in July 2025.
Since leaving the apartment, Mercedes says her health has fully returned to normal. Her hair has grown back. The rashes have faded. The vomiting stopped.
Looking back, she believes the ordeal was entirely preventable.
‘They could have just replaced the unit,’ she said. ‘It was completely avoidable. I asked them, ‘Would you want this to happen to your daughter?’
‘I felt like that apartment was slowly killing me,’ she added. ‘I went from running and weight-training every day to being in a state of deep depression.’
Now recovered, Mercedes is urging others who feel ignored or dismissed to trust their instincts and push back.
‘If you’ve done everything you can on your side and you’re still being neglected, you have to stand up for yourself,’ she said. ‘You have to fight back.’
