Before you hop on a boat this holiday weekend a grieving mother has a message for you about a silent killer.
Cassandra Free is a mother of four, who without a question knows each one of her children better than anyone.
“Andy was like the everyday kid next door, friendly and loving and mischievous," she said. "Typical fun-loving kid who was willing to try everything. He would do anything for anybody.”
She always has her eye on the kids, but even then she did not see the signs of a silent killer until it was too late.
“On the day that he passed away, he didn't do a whole lot of any complaining,” she said. “And I do wish that he would have and that I could have heard it because, I don't know, maybe things would have turned out differently.”
Cassandra, her nine-year-old son Andy, and their family were bringing their boat to the dock in an Oklahoma lake. They had just spent the day jet skiing and wakeboarding.
“He kind of moved out of everybody his way, moved up onto the back of the boat, and was just sitting there,” Free said. “And that was the last place that I ever saw him.”
They were unloading the boat, when her husband saw Andy fall into the water.
“He knew right away that something wasn't right,” she said.
They dove in after him.
“But he never breathed again,” she said. “He just went from being a kid, waiting to leave the lake and go get some ice cream on the way home, to not getting to go home.”
After some testing, the medical examiner concluded Andy didn't drown. He had fallen victim to an invisible enemy.
“His carboxyl hemoglobin was almost twice the deadly threshold,” Free said. “So he had significantly high levels of carbon monoxide, which meant that he had extremely low levels of oxygen.”
Andy passed away four years ago, but Cassandra wants to use her family's tragedy to warn you carbon monoxide poisoning does not just happen inside. It can happen on a boat as well.
“Open air, you're out in the air, you think you're safe,” Bonita Springs Fire Chief Greg DeWitt said. “You think that nothing is going on. But if you're close to the exhaust, like on a boat, you're sitting on that back swim platform it's dangerous.”
DeWitt said to look for these signs while you are boating.
“The effects can be dizziness, lightheadedness, nausea, even chest pain, and confusion,” he said.
Keep children away from engines, and while you are idling, turn the engines off.
“We have a saying, complacency kills,” he said. “Don't be complacent. It can happen to anybody. We all make mistakes. We're all human.”
Free said even if you are not a boater, this message is important to share.
“If you're not a boater and you don't think that it'll ever affect you, doesn't mean you have a family member or friend who hasn't heard who might benefit from the information,” she said.
Do not hesitate to call 911 while out on the water. If you do not have service then get your marine radio tuned to channel 16 for help.