Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/6/15
Staff Report
A standout lacrosse goalie who plays at Tatnall School (DE) is in critical condition along with his younger brother and father after their family became sick – possibly from pesticide exposure – during a vacation in the U.S. Virginia Islands, according to a CNN report posted today.
The CNN report said that Sean Esmond, 16, a junior at Tatnall, and his 14-year-old brother, Ryan, and father, Steve Esmond, were being treated at a Philadelphia-area hospital, according to their family lawyer. According to the Delaware News-Journal, the father was being treated at Christiana Hospital in Delaware and other reports said the boys were being treated at CHOP.
The CNN report said both sons were in a coma. Steve Esmond, a top administrator at the private Tatnall School in Greenville, is conscious but cannot move, the CNN report said.
Sean Esmond, who also plays club lacrosse for Team 302 of delaware, was named to the Philly team at the Brine National Lacrosse Classic last summer and was interviewed by TopLaxRecruits.com click here .
The News-Journal report said the officials told them the Esmonds were poisoned by the pesticide methyl bromide, which was sprayed by employees of Terminix on March 18 in the condominium beneath the unit rented by the Esmond family.
The CNN report said that the three and their mother became ill more than two weeks ago in St. John, where they were renting a villa at the Sirenusa resort.
Information to CNN and the News-Journal came through the family’s lawyer, James Maron, of Delaware.
The teens’ mother, Theresa Devine, was treated at a hospital but released, the CNN report said.
The CNN reported that the The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Friday that the presence of a pesticide at the rented villa in St. John may have caused the illnesses, which were reported to the EPA on March 20. The CNN report said the family had been renting the villa since March 14 and that Esmond was found unconscious and the boys and their mother were having seizures.
The CNN report also said that EPA spokesman Elias Rodriguez said the agency’s preliminary test results showed a presence of methyl bromide in the unit where the family was staying. The Report said that exposure to methyl bromide can result in serious health effects, including central nervous system and respiratory system damage, according to the EPA.
