TUSTIN, Calif. — This mother can control things like her only child’s medication, but there are some things out of Denise Berg’s hands.

“We kind of set a routine because if she strays from the routine, even just a little bit, she tends to get sick,” said Berg, a longtime Tustin Ranch resident.

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Her 18-year-old daughter named Morgan has POTS which is short for postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. 

“When normal people stand up, you have a temporary rise in your heart rate and your blood vessels constrict to keep the blood to your brain and your vital organs,” said Berg.

However, when POTS patients like Morgan get up from a reclining position to sit or stand, her blood pools in her legs causing her to lose all blood flow to her heart while her heart rate continues to rise. Berg says there are other things that can trigger her to feel dizzy, nauseous, lose her memory and feel sick -- like the smell of car exhaust fumes. 

“There’s been more than one morning when you hear a thunk and you go check on your kid and she’s on the floor. Usually she’s lucid at that point, but not always,” said Berg.

A group called Protect Tustin Ranch filed a lawsuit against the City of Tustin, the city council and the planning commission to prevent them from building a 16-pump Costco Gas Station on Tustin Ranch Road and Bryan Avenue. The Berg family lives about half a mile away from the site.

“She’s going to be having that car exhaust smell in and around our house, seeping into our windows just like the dust seeps into our windows and I just kept thinking she’s going to feel sick all the time and I needed to speak up,” said Berg.

We reached out to several residents who are in support of the gas station, but they all chose not to be part of the story. The city council cannot comment on this issue because of the on-going lawsuit. 

Berg says she understands the convenience of having a Costco gas station nearby, but she is putting her foot down and will continue to speak up against the city’s plan.

Click here to read the online petition the residents filed: change.org/p/city-council-protect-tustin-ranch-no-to-a-mega-costco-gas-station-and-more-traffic-pollution

Click here to read the city of Tustin’s plan: tustinca.org/1126/Costco-Gasoline-Station-Project-Informat