Don’t Feed This To Your Kids . . .

485 people fell ill and six others have died due to salmonella tainted peanut butter that originated from a plant located in Blakely, Georgia.

The plant does sell directly to the public, but ships peanut butter in (5) to 1700 pounds containers that food companies use in a variety of products. Worse, is the fact that these containers are used by schools, nursing homes, hospitals and child care centers. The aforementioned list contains two groups that are more susceptible, to the effects from eating foods contaminated with salmonella, children and the elderly.

As of Sunday there have 101 products recalled and the list continues to grow. Popular brands enjoyed by children are on the list, such as: Little Debbie, Keebler, Famous Amos, General Mills, Kroger and Club Foods.

Parents should not take this latest salmonella outbreak lightly or confuse it with the earlier recall by Peter Pan and ConAgra foods. Peanut butter has such a far reaching effect that parents must really stop and consider all the products that contained peanut butter or peanut paste.

Consider for a moment, how contaminated salmonella peanut butter, shipped from one plant in Blakely, Georgia has such a profound effect that it threatens the health of anyone who has eaten a product manufactured with its ingredients.

The list of products that uses peanut butter is innumerable, but I’ll just touch on a few: cereal, cookies, cakes, crackers, candies and ice cream.

Each and every product that touches your children or love ones should be checked before it reaches their lips. Don’t be misled in thinking that because you threw out a jar of peanut butter that the threat ended there. You would be surprised at how many items contain some form of peanut butter or peanut paste even though you couldn’t tell by how the product’s named.

To take the seriousness of this latest salmonella outbreak a step further . . . parents should be very leery of vending machines. Salmonella can live in peanut butter paste snacks sold from these machines for months.

The list of states affected by this latest recalled has reached 43. The remaining seven states free from reporting any salmonella incidents attributed to this recall are: Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Louisiana, Montana, New Mexico, and South Carolina.

According to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) King Nut peanut butter has tested positive for the strain of Salmonella associated with the nationwide outbreak. The FDA also notified the Peanut Corporation of America (PCA) that product samples taken from the plant in Blakely, Georgia have been tested and found positive for Salmonella.

Of all the dangers, which surround children on a daily basis, that parents diligently, try to protect them from, who would have ever thought that now . . . peanut butter would have to be added to the list?

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author

 

A Wedding Day Ends In Tragedy . . .

Mirlande Jean-Baptiste had a very big day ahead of her. It was her wedding day, and like most brides-to-be, she had so many errands, so many loose ends that needed to be tied up, to ensure that the momentous day went according to plan.

The first thing on Ms. Jean-Baptiste’s list that day, accompanied by her sister, was to drop off her son and several other children, at the house of a family friend.

Unbeknownst to Jean-Baptiste, her 4-year-old son never got out of the car.

While Jean-Baptiste was on her way to the nail salon, 19-year-old Emanuella Castor, who later that evening was to be a bridesmaid at the wedding, naturally assumed that the boy’s mother had taken him with her when she didn’t see him among the other children that were dropped off.

Ms. Jean-Baptiste unaware that her son, Gregory was in the Ford Expedition she had been driving—locked the SUV and went inside the salon to have her nails done.

She and her sister returned to the SUV three hours later.

Ms. Jean-Baptiste became hysterical at the sight of her son sprawled out on the seat of the SUV. While her sister called 911, Jean-Baptiste, who works as a nurse, tried frantically to resuscitate her son.

Paramedics arrived and tried to revive the 4-year-old, but their attempts were in vain . . . he was pronounced dead on arrival at Palms West hospital.

Although the temperature outside where the SUV had been parked was around 89 degrees Fahrenheit, experts speculated that the temperature inside the vehicle could have been as high as 139 degrees Fahrenheit.

The medical examiner said that Gregory Cesar’s body temperature had reached 108 degrees Fahrenheit.

Following the death of her son, the Palm Beach County Sherriff’s wanted to get Ms. Jean-Baptiste’s account of what happened, but were unable to do so because the distraught mother had to be sedated.

She broke her silence on Monday, July 21.

Overcome with anguish, she called her son’s death a horrible accident. She thought that Gregory was in a family friend’s car with four other children.

The day that began with so much promise, ended up being a day of mourning.

Guests, who had arrived to celebrate a wedding, were told by Pastor Wendell Charles of the Elected Church of God in Lake Worth, to make their way to the hospital.

Family members still attired in their wedding suits and gowns were overcome with emotions in the Palms West hospital waiting room, when they heard that Gregory Cesar died and lamented . . .

How could this happen?

Why did it happen?

Perhaps, 4-year-old Gregory wanted to be with his mother. He could have easily hid in the third row of the SUV. If he didn’t make a sound, his mother would not [from the disastrous turn of events] have known her son was back there.

Mirlande Jean-Baptiste life has been irrevocably changed.

She now has to live with the agony of knowing that her child died in the sweltering heat.

But unaware that she had locked him in the Ford Expedition, Ms. Jean-Baptiste was powerless to help her son when he needed her the most.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author

Parent’s Beware!

In As I Lay You Down To Sleep I warned parents about cribs made by Jardine Enterprises.

Now the item that most babies regard as a security blanket to help them sleep and parents’ extol for its ability to render their child quiet is being recalled.

“It’s My Binky” has recalled 115,000 of its personalized pacifiers.

Although no serious injuries have been reported, the company made its decision after receiving two reports of the pacifier button, ring handle, and the shield with nipple detaching—posing a potential choking hazard for infants.

The recall affects pacifiers withJaplo imprinted on the lower part of the front cover shield. The pacifiers come in a variety of colors: blue, white and pink.

The pacifiers are also unique because of the various designs and words printed on the button. Parents can use the following link for a complete listing of the symbols and text printed on the Recalled Japlo Pacifiers.

The pacifiers were sold at Nordstrom and baby boutique retail stores and online at www.itsmybinky.com. The affected pacifiers were sold from February 2006 through June 2008 and retailed between $5 and $6.

Parents should immediately desist in their use of these pacifiers and return them to the store where purchased. For online purchases, contact the company at once for a free pacifier replacement.

Additional information can be obtained by contacting It’s MY Binky toll-free number at 888-689-9444, Monday thru Friday, between the hours of 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Pacific Time (P.T.)

The company’s website can also be visited at www.itsmybinky.com or consumers can choose to email Danielle Ribber atDanielle@itsmybinky.com

Parents and friends of parents don’t procrastinate. Spread the word about these recalled pacifiers.

If not, the child that you lay down with one of these defective pacifiers—may never awaken from their sleep.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author

 

No More Happy Feet . . .

400 penguins, mostly baby birds have been found dead on the tropical beaches of Rio de Janeiro.

The cause for this anomaly has rescue workers debating.

According to Eduardo Pimenta, superintendent for the state coastal protection and environment agency in the city of Cabo Frio:

“While it is common here to find some penguins—both dead and alive—swept by strong ocean currents from the Strait of Magellan, there has been more this year than any time in recent history.”

Thaigo Muniz, a veterinarian at the Neteroi Zoo, believes that overfishing has force the penguins to migrate further from shore to find fish to eat, making them more vulnerable to the strong ocean currents.

“Niteroi, the biggest zoo, already has received about 100 penguins for treatment this year,” said Mr. Muniz, “and many more are drenched in petroleum.”

Muniz went on to add that he hasn’t seen penguins suffering from other pollutants, but he pointed out the dead penguins are not brought in to receive treatment.

Mr. Pimenta however strongly suggested that the real culprit in the penguins’ death is pollution, citing information he received from biologist working closely with him.

“Aside from the oil in the Campos basin, the pollution is lowering the animals’ immunity, leaving them vulnerable to funguses and bacteria that attack their lungs,” Pimenta said.

And still another theory has been proffered:

Biologist Erli Costa of Rio de Janeiro’s Federal University intimated that the weather patterns could be the true source of the problem.

“I don’t think the levels of pollution are high enough to affect the birds so quickly. I think instead we’re seeing more young and sick penguins because of global warming, which affects ocean currents and creates more cyclones, making the seas rougher,” Costa said.

Costa concluded that an overwhelming number of dead penguins are fledglings that have just left the nest and are unable to out-swim the strong ocean currents that engulf them as they search for food.

No matter what theory these rescue workers purport . . . one thing is abundantly clear:

Overfishing, petroleum pollution, and weather pattern changes [attributed to global warming] are all conditions created by man.

Perhaps in a quest to find food, Penguins are on the march, and if man is not careful, he will find that his uncaring attitude in maintaining natures’ delicate balance . . . has forced the penguins into a march of extinction.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author

 

We Can’t Find The Answer . . .

In a follow up toMake Mine Without Tomatoes the U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted its warning on tomatoes not because it found the source of the outbreak, but because the ones that were contaminated, would have been discarded by this time due to spoilage.

Now comes yet another warning . . .

Jalapeño Pepper Tests Positive for Salmonella!

Food and safety officials stated today that a fresh jalapeño grown in Mexico and processed in Texas tested positive for the strain of Salmonella, which is responsible for making 1,200 people sick.

The associate commissioner of the FDA, David Acheson, said there has been a “significant break in the salmonella investigation,” but he also stressed the fact that the investigation is still ongoing.

As a result of this latest development, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is asking people nationwide to avoid eating fresh jalapeño and serrano peppers. The warning also includes eating any food that has been prepared with fresh jalapeño peppers as well.

The origin of the pepper that tested positive was from a produce distribution center called Agricola Zaragosa, in McAllen Texas. Although other samples have tested negative, the distribution center has recalled all peppers that passed through its plant since the outbreak.

Dr. Robert Tauxe of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cited these figures on the outbreak thus far:

The outbreak of the Salmonella strain, known as Salmonella stapul has made 1,251 people sick, caused another 229 to be hospitalized and has led to the death of two elderly men, who died from unrelated causes while being infected.

To determine if the small facility in McAllen, Texas is responsible for the entire outbreak, the FDA has sent inspectors to Mexico.

The FDA’s action has prompted Mexico to conduct an investigation of its own. Marco Antonio Sifuentes, spokesman for the Mexican agriculture ministry, asserts that the strain of bacteria that has sickened over 1,200 people in the United States has never materialized in Mexico.

A small, green, husked tomato-like fruit known as tomatillos are also shipped from the Produce Distribution Center in McAllen, Texas.

The facility in Texas was investigated after the FDA traced a cluster of illnesses to that geographical area.

“We are working back from a population of patients who got sick in a single geographic area that ate in a single place,” Acheson said. “We asked where peppers linked to that cluster came from.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration lifted the warning on tomatoes without ever finding the source of the outbreak, and now it’s released a similar warning on jalapeño and serrano peppers.

The public’s confidence in the FDA is waning.

Parents are outraged by this latest turn of events. Concerned parents are prohibiting their children from eating tomatoes and given the FDA’s inability to properly track the source of an outbreak, wonder if they should bar their children from eating other produce as well.

No one wants their child to be part of the statistics when a new produce is found with the Salmonella stapul strain.

U.S. Senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, who chairs the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee, issued the following statement:

“This is far too long for an outbreak to spread unresolved and it is unacceptable for public health, farmers and the food produce industry.”

According to Dr. Tauxe, 14 more case has been reported since last Friday, July 18.

No one knows for sure where the breakdown has occurred in the production cycle that led to the jalapeño pepper being infected with the Salmonella strain and according to Dr. Tauxe, the investigation is still ongoing.

As consumers of Tomatoes, Peppers, and other forms of produce, the public should be made aware of this fact:

Abdominal cramps, diarrhea, and fever are all common symptoms of Salmonella poisoning . . . 40,000 cases and 400 deaths are reported in the United States each year.

Err on the side of caution and forgo jalapeño peppers and tomatoes for now, until the FDA does its job properly and not only find the source of the current outbreak, but implement a system to track and prevent other outbreaks from reaching epidemic proportions.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author

 

Let’s Go To The Videotape!

A catch phrase used by sport commentator Warner Wolf to introduce highlights seems apropos on this occasion . . . since the videotape in question provides concrete evidence of the deplorable conditions at the psychiatric ward at Kings County Hospital.

Esmin Green, 49, a devout churchgoer from a small country village, Lluidas Vale, in Jamaica had been involuntarily taken to Kings County Hospital on June 18.

In what would seem incredulous if it had not been captured on surveillance tapes, Ms. Green sat in the waiting room for twenty-four hours without being attended to by any of the hospital’s staff.

Even more horrific is that the tape clearly depicts the indifference and disregard of the hospital’s employees towards Ms. Green when she collapsed onto the waiting room floor.

The surveillance camera video shows a woman falling off the waiting room chair, landing face-down on the floor and convulsing. The NYCLU indicated that the woman collapsed on June 19 at 5:32 a.m., and she stopped moving at 6:07 a.m.

Ms. Green sprawled out in the corner between two rows of waiting room chairs could be seen writhing in pain as she attempted to get up from the floor. Moments later she ceased moving.

Ironically all of this occurring right in front of the surveillance cameras which are supposed to be monitored by security guards. A guard appears on the tape but seems to be more interested in looking at television although Ms. Green is in full view face-down on the floor.

Nearly an hour elapsed before the guard wheeling himself in an office chair, realizes that Ms. Green is on floor and summons help.

If the treatment or lack of towards Ms. Green wasn’t inhumane enough by Kings County Hospital . . . the NYCLU has evidence that hospital staff falsified her records to cover up the lack of assistance she received while sprawled out on the floor.

“Contrary to what was recorded from four different angles by the hospital’s video cameras, the patient’s medical records say that at 6 a.m., she got up and went to the bathroom, and at 6:20 a.m., she was ‘sitting quietly in waiting room’ . . . more than ten minutes since she last moved and 48 minutes after she fell to the floor.”

The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, which is responsible for overseeing the hospital, released a statement regarding the circumstances surrounding Ms. Green’s death.

“We are shocked and distressed by this situation. It is clear that some of our employees failed to act based on our compassionate standards of care.”

This statement however seems incongruent with the reputation Kings County Hospital has built up over the years.

The infamous G building . . . has been reputed to commit acts of physical abuse against patients who dare to complain about the psychiatric ward’s horrid treatment. The building gained its notoriety as a place where patients are injected with drugs to keep them submissive.

The Civil Liberties Group and the Mental Hygiene Legal services in May of 2007 filed a law suit in federal court against Kings County. The suit alleges that conditions at the facility are filthy. The group asserts that patients are forced to sleep on plastic chairs or on the floor covered with blood, feces and urine as they await a bed . . . often going without basic hygiene provisions, such as showers, clean linen and clean clothes.

The suit alleges . . . Kings County Hospital lacks . . . “the minimal requirement of basic cleanliness, space, privacy, and personal hygiene that are constitutionally guaranteed even to convicted felons.”

The Hospitals Corporation took the first step in its pledge to put “additional and significant” reforms in place since Ms. Green death. After a preliminary investigation, it terminated or suspended seven employees, “including staff involved with the direct care of the patient as well as managers of security and clinical services.”

The videotape that has circulated worldwide uncovers the inhumane, barbaric, and deplorable conditions of an institution responsible for being a safe haven, where a despondent woman suffering from “agitation and psychosis” was taken against her will . . . to receive help.

“What’s happening in Kings County Hospital is an affront to human dignity,” New York Civil Liberty Union Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a written statement. “In 2008 in New York City, nobody should be subjected to this kind of treatment. It should not take the death of a patient to get the city to make changes that everyone knows are long overdue.”

One can only help but wonder if Ms. Green had received the proper treatment the day before in the same hospital would she be alive today.

According to Ms. Sterling, a close friend . . . Ms. Green, the mother of six children living in Jamaica, had come to this country to provide a better life for them.

Ms. Green pined for her children. She was constantly calling them and sending large barrels filled with food and gifts for the holidays.

“Esmin had grown despondent of late,” Ms. Sterling said. “She had no work, was on the verge of losing her apartment and could no longer send money home.”

People closest to Ms. Green spoke about long stretches of depression that would last for weeks. Dark days had engulfed a woman, who had no immediate family in the United States, as she struggled against hopeless financial limitations to feed her six children.

 “Whenever she was getting sick, she would not eat. She would walk back and forth on the street, or stay in her room.”

With nowhere else to turn, the church had become her family.

Ironically in the same hospital that she would later die . . . Ms. Green over the course of four years had accompanied her longtime friend and chaplain Eleanor Ramsaran, while she gave sermons in the chapel at Kings County.

Perhaps if Ms. Green would have been left alone in her apartment, during her latest bout of depression, and not taken against her will to Kings County Hospital, she would still be alive.

Then again . . . the lord works in mysterious ways.

Who would disagree that as Ms. Green writhing in pain, face-down on the waiting room floor . . . oblivious to other patients and under the surveillance of video cameras . . . that divine intervention did not use her and that moment, to depict the barbaric and inhumane conditions that have existed for quite some time in the psychiatric ward at Kings County Hospital.

Thank God for the videotape . . . it serves to remind us of Ms. Green’s plight and hopefully the image of a woman gasping for her last breath on a cold waiting room floor . . . is one that will not be so easily forgotten.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author

As I Lay You Down To Sleep . . .

Now I lay me down to sleep is a classic 18th century children’s prayer. The original version has been revised a number of times to reflect a more positive outlook.

One of the variants:

Now I lay me down to sleep,

I pray the lord my soul to keep,

Thy angels watch me through the night,

And keep me safe till morning’s light.

Parents who put this little rhyme at the head of their baby’s crib would never for a moment think that the words had to been taken literally.

Such is the case if you’re the owner of a Jardine crib.

320,000 Jardine cribs manufactured in Taiwan by Jardine Enterprises are being recalled because of a gap that can trap and strangle infants.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission issued the warning after four children became entrapped and two suffered abrasions and bruises. The commission has also chronicled 42 incidents of crib’s slats and spindle breaking, creating a gap, which poses an entrapment and strangulation hazard for infants.

The cribs are sold at Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Kidsworld and Geoffrey stores. The affected cribs were sold from January 2002 through May 2008. The recall includes different styles and finishes. A full recall listing can be found at jardinecribrecall.com.

The prices of the cribs range from $150 to $450.

A news released states that owners of this crib should stop using it immediately and contact Jardine Enterprises to receive a full credit towards the purchase of a new one.

Owners wanting more information can reach Jardine Enterprises at (800) 646-4106 or visit their Website.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author

 

My Mother Is A Baby . . .

That is what the city of Gloucester, Massachusetts has to contend with due to allegations made by a high school principal that seventeen girls made a pact to get pregnant.

Principal Joseph Sullivan is being looked upon with dubious distinction over a statement he made to Time magazine that the young girls had made such a pact. The girls ranging in age 16 and younger are all sophomores.

Mayor Carolyn Kirk claims that there is no corroborating evidence to support Mr. Sullivan’s assertions. She plans to meet with school, health and other local officials to determine the rise of teen pregnancy, which is usually an average of four girls a year.

“The high school principal is the one who initially said it, and one else has said it,” Kirk said. “None of the counselors at the school, none of the teachers who know these children and none of the families have spoken about it.

“So, my position is that it has not been confirmed,” she said.

Gloucester—a city 30 miles north of Boston with a population of about 30,000 is trying to deal with the notoriety. City and school officials are baffled and have no explanation for the recent increase in teenage pregnancies at the 1,200 student high school.

 At the center of the controversy is the proposal to stem a possible epidemic in teen births by distributing contraceptives to students without parental consent. The issue has become so volatile that last month, two officials at the high school health center resigned to protest the local hospital’s refusal to participate in the program.

What seems rather odd throughout Gloucester’s ordeal is the reluctance of school, health, parents and local officials to ascertain the reason for the increase by asking the seventeen girls. Perhaps, if this was done, the romanticism that young girls feel about having babies, would be shattered by the reality of how hard it to raised a child as an adult, yet alone, at such a tender age of sixteen.

The demographics of this heavily Catholic town, which has a large population of Italian and Portuguese residents is perhaps the source of the problem. The town has a history of being supportive of teenage mothers. The high school has a day care center for employees and oddly enough for the students as well.

Perhaps what parents, city and school officials should be doing, is not encouraging use of the day care center in school, but teaching the harsh reality of what happens . . . when babies have babies.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author

Make Mine Without Tomatoes!

That seems to be the public’s response over the latest salmonella scare. With federal investigators unable to locate the source for the outbreak, McDonald’s, Wal-Mart and other US chains have halted sales of some raw tomatoes.

The outbreak which spans across 17 states since mid-April is responsible for 167 people being infected with salmonella and at least 23 others being hospitalized.

A 67-year-old cancer patient residing in Texas, who health officials said was sickened by salmonella at a Mexican restaurant, is believed to the first death associated with the outbreak. Although the death of Raul Rivera last week has been officially attributed to his cancer, Kathy Barton, a spokeswoman for the Houston health department, disclose to the Houston Chronicle that salmonella strain was a contributing factor.

Rivera’s wife stated that her husband was hospitalized after eating pico de gallo, a tomato-based condiment, while celebrating the good news about his cancer treatment in the latter part of May.

Salmonella: are bacteria that live in the intestinal tracts of human and other animals. The bacteria are usually transmitted to humans by eating food contaminated with animal feces.

Most infected people suffer the following symptoms within 12 to 72 hours after being infected: abdominal cramps, diarrhea and fever. The illness tends to last four to seven days.

Many people recover without treatment. However, there is the possibility of severe infection and even death. Infants, the elderly and individuals with weakened immune systems are at the greatest risk for severe infection.

The FDA warned U.S. consumers on Saturday that the outbreak was linked to certain raw plum, red Roma and red round tomatoes, and any product containing those tomatoes.

The panic stricken public and the FDA’s inability to track the source of the outbreak have U.S. and Mexican growers alarmed.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S. growers produced $1.28 billion worth of tomatoes last year. In addition to Mexico, which sends nearly 700,000 metric tons to the United States each year, worth $900 million in business, the delay in finding the source is becoming costly.

The FDA has no clue where the contaminated tomatoes originated, but most of the people afflicted with the infection have been in New Mexico and Texas.

The FDA claims that it is safe to eat cherry tomatoes, grape tomatoes and tomatoes sold with the vines still attached.

However, with the spinach scare of 2006 still prevalent in the minds of buyers and consumers, in which three people died and 200 were sickened after eating spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria.

 The outcries heard from wary buyers and informed consumers for and at eating establishments . . . hold the tomatoes!

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author

 

Momma I Want To Lie Down . . .

Cassandra Jackson will never forget her son’s last words. After swimming for about 45 minutes in a neighboring apartment complex pool, Johnny returned home disoriented, sluggish, drowsy, and asked his mother if he could take a nap.

An hour later—Johnny was dead.

“I feel like someone reached in and grabbed my heart and just yanked it out,” Ms. Jackson said.

Ms. Jackson stated when she found her son, Johnny had foam and water coming out of his nose, his body was limp and he couldn’t breathe.

Although Johnny had been wearing arm floatation devices, he still managed to ingest a lot of water, which led to his death by asphyxiation.

There were signs that indicated something was wrong with Johnny, but none of them apparent to Ms. Jackson and perhaps it would have been the same with other parents as well, unaware of the symptoms of dry drowning.

“The term sounds so contradictory—drown and dry,” said Dr. Harold Laski.

Dr. Laski went on to say dry drowning is not as uncommon as people might think. 15 percent of deaths attributed to drowning occur when the victim is not in the water.

 “You don’t even need much water,” Dr. Laski concluded. “Just a little bit of water that hits the flap that opens and closes to allow you to either breathe or eat.”

In the case of 10-year-old Johnny, he had gone swimming and it wasn’t until hours later that his symptoms started to appear. His mother said, he had soiled himself, started walking slowly and was drowsy.

“Johnny went to take a nap,” Ms. Jackson said, “and an hour later he died.”

Perhaps the only consolation for Ms. Jackson . . . is that Johnny’ death will help to educate the public on the symptoms of dry drowning.

Three important signs that parents should watch for: difficulty breathing, extreme tiredness, and behavioral changes. All of these symptoms are a result of reduced oxygen flow to the brain.

Victims can be treated quickly in an emergency room, but for Cassandra Jackson’s son Johnny, public awareness on the dangers of dry drowning has come too late.

Bradley Booth/Freelance Commercial Writer/Author