A mother from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, is using her heartbreaking experience to spread an urgent message to other parents. Cassandra Free lost her son Andrew in a terrible boating accident on June 6. Months later, the mom shared that the cause of her childâs death wasnât a fatal plunge off their boat â it was CO poisoning and it happened in a way most parents would never dream about when taking their kids out for a day in the sun.
Speaking with CafeMom, Free says her family was having a typical summer day on the water.
The mom of three â to Jonathan, 15; Blake, 13; and Andy, âforever 9â â says her kids started out the day tubing while she, husband Brett, and a friend manned the boat on Lake Eufaula in Eufaula, Oklahoma.
âThe kids jumped in between riders and took turns,â she says. âThey started out at the front, but because of the sun, the adults shifted into the shade of the Bimini top, an open-air canvas canopy on the front of the boat, and the boys moved to the back.â
Then the kids hit their wakeboards and spent the rest of the day wakesurfing.
There were times the kids had to hop off their wakeboards and they needed to drive the boat slowly across âno-wake zones,â but the boys spent most of their day behind the boat.
âIt took a good long while to get back to the dock,â Free recalls. âAndy crawled onto the back of the boat, Blake laid out completely on the back seat, and John sat on the deck taking equipment.â
Of course, her boys werenât being âparticularly helpfulâ so her husband had to yell at them to get their butts up and help out.
But then, Andy fell off their boat and âdidnât struggle.â At first, they thought he was being âdefiant,â but soon it became clear that he needed help. Freeâs husband and a helpful stranger dove in and were able to grab him, but by then it was too late.
âHe was recovered, but he never took another breath,â his mom shares.
It might have seemed like Andyâs death was the result of drowning, but there were signs something else was going on.
âAt the hospital, our older sons were insistent that their heads were killing them. Dizziness, nausea,â Free recalls. At the time it all seemed like markers of a day spent in the sun, mixed with grief.
âMy husband took them outside while I waited for the medical examiner and then he came back in and said that he wanted to admit them for tests,â Free remembers. âBlood tests revealed the CO poisoning, and the medical examiner was notified to run tests on Andy.â
As the family waited for Andy's autopsy, local news outlets started to report that the boy fell and drowned.
In a post on Facebook from August 28, more than two months after Andy died, Free was ready to set the record straight.
âWe did not dispute [previous reports] without having our own concrete evidence, but we knew that this wasnât what happened,â she wrote in her post. âHe wasnât on the dock. His brothers were treated that night at St. Francis for Acute Carbon Monoxide poisoning. Andrew has been swimming since he was 2 years old â he was a STRONG swimmer â and yet, he didnât even struggle.â
Andyâs autopsy revealed that he had high (72%) levels of COHb, or carboxyhemoglobin, âa stable complex of carbon monoxide that forms in red blood cells when carbon monoxide is inhaled,â according to MedScape, which meant that he died from carbon monoxide poisoning, not drowning.
Many people think you can only get CO2 poisoning indoors, but all three of Free's kids got CO2 poisoning from being behind the boat all day.
âBoats, even moving, create a backdraft of exhaust,â the mom explained in her post. âThatâs right. Exactly what Iâve typed: carbon monoxide exits the rear of the boat and drafts right back into the back of the boat. Backseat riders are especially vulnerable at low speeds and in long no-wake zones like the one we had to cross to return to the docks."
Itâs called âopen-air carbon monoxide poisoning.â
âOur little Andy, our Dude, was probably slowly dying that afternoon/evening and we didnât know it,â Free explained. âHe wouldâve been tired. His head wouldâve started to hurt. Sounds like too much sun after a long, physically draining day of wakeboarding, wake surfing, and tubing.
âHad he not fallen over, had he made it into the car, even if he wouldnât have passed at the lake, he wouldâve been so severely brain-damaged that he likely wouldâve passed away in his sleep on the way home,â she added. âEven if he wouldâve gone immediately to the ER at that time, he still wouldâve died.â
More than 10,000 people have shared Freeâs post, and the mom tells us that she wanted to tell others her sonâs story because many boaters are unaware of the risks.
âInboard boats can accumulate lethal levels [of carbon monoxide] in minutes,â she tells us. âBoat owners will spend up to and even in excess of $100,000 for a boat. We trust our boats the way that we trust our cars, for the most part.â
The mom says that this information isnât widely known.
âUnless you know of the risk, unless you or someone you know has been affected, you donât know to look for this. It is not included in all boater safety classes,â she says.
âMost states do not require that adult operators take boater safety anyway,â she adds. âThis is frustrating.â
She holds boat manufacturers and the U.S. Coast Guard responsible for keeping this information from the public.
âThere shouldâve been huge reforms to the boating industry,â she tells CafeMom. âI want reform because, even if your boat is safe, the boat next to you might not be and its emissions can harm you and your passengers. It will be complicated, but itâs long overdue.â
Until these reforms happen, Free will keep sharing her sonâs story so other parents will keep their kids safe.
âI will never forgive myself for what was out of my control, which is why I will continue to spread his story,â she explains. She and her husband still doesnât know if there will be other long-term effects for her other sons, who also had CO2 poisoning.
Between Free, her husband, and a friend who was with them, they have years and years of boating experience â and none of them knew that CO2 poisoning outside was possible.
âOur family was destroyed,â she says. "We can never be whole in this life, ever again. Andy was the most amazing child. His future was huge. And it was stolen from him and stolen from his family. He was my baby and my best friend.â
The mom says she hopes that by spreading awareness, others will join her in the push for safer exhaust laws.
âNo one is exempt from the danger,â she says. âBut, if people are aware, if people started looking at safer exhaust options, such as Fresh Air Exhaust, if people make their kids ride in the front of a boat or boated for shorter periods of time with fresh air breaks, people would be safer. All water accesses should have posted warnings of the dangers.
