Mom's warning after son dies from carbon monoxide poisoning while boating
An Oklahoma mother is speaking out about the dangers of open-air carbon monoxide poisoning after the tragic death of her 9-year-old son.
On June 6, Cassandra Free of Broken Arrow, Okla. and her family were looking forward to a day filled with fun on Lake Eufaula. Free's family along with a family friend spent the day tubing and wake surfing on the water, but towards the end of the day, Free's youngest son, Andrew Brady, became unconscious and fell into the lake, never waking up again.
In an interview with TODAY Health, Free recalled that all three of her sons, including 15-year-old Jonathan and 13-year-old Blake, began complaining that they didn't feel well. As the family began to dock, Andrew, "crawled onto the back of the boat and curled up in a ball."
"We were packing and cleaning up and the kids are groaning that they don't feel good, just want to take a nap," said Free. "My husband got Blake, my middle son, up. When he tried to get Andy, the boat just rocked and Andy rolled off. My husband, he was like, 'What the heck?'"
Andrew, who had been a strong swimmer, didn't move or attempt to swim as he fell. Free's husband, Brett, and their family friend immediately jumped into the water to save him.
"They were able to recover him but he never breathed another breath," Free recalled. "They did CPR forever, it seemed, before emergency services came. The doctors said there is zero brain activity. Even if they got a single breath, there would have been no quality of life."
According to Free, someone suggested testing her eldest sons for carbon monoxide poisoning. Results showed that both Jonathan and Blake had acute carbon monoxide poisoning, prompting the medical examiner to test Andrew as well.
"His levels were 72 carboxyhemoglobin, which means 72 percent of his blood could not carry oxygen to his brain. That resulted in brain death," Free explained.
The 9-year-old's levels of carbon monoxide were so high, doctors advised Free that by the time he fell into the water he was "already gone."
www.yahoo.com/lifest yle/mother-issues-wa rning-carbon-monoxid e-boating-15253 
