Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Tragedy - Something Must Be Done

It's a terrible story. Heartbreaking.

Thirteen-year-old Michael Thomas Truluck was hanging out with friends, maybe shooting some hoops. He sent a text to his mom, Kristina Keys, asking for a ride home. Mary Gail Hare in the Baltimore Sun picks up the story.

"I knew he was hanging out with a bunch of friends, and there was
nothing unusual about that," Kristina Keys said. "He texted and asked
for a ride home. We picked him and two friends up."Keys said she
had no idea that his Saturday afternoon, which usually included lunch at
a fast-food restaurant and hoops at Double Rock Park in Parkville,
involved drinking an alcohol-laced energy drink, which an unidentified
adult purchased for the pre-teens. The drink, Four Loko, comes in a
23.5-ounce can that is12 percent alcohol. The drink made her son ill,
she said — his friends told her he had thrown up twice before getting in
the car.About 6:15 p.m., just as the family Jeep was making a left turn onto
8300 block of Harford Road, Michael said he was again feeling sick. He
took off his seat belt, opened the front passenger door, fell out of the
vehicle and was struck by a Ford Explorer driving north on Harford
Road.

He died later that evening.

A terrible story. Heartbreaking.

Michael's mother, though, doesn't just mourn. She's inspired to reach out. She wants others to know the dangers of the drink.

She hopes others learn from her son's experience, but she fears many
parents are, as she was, in denial. She said she wants to alert parents
to the problem of underage