FAMILY BLAMES CENTER FOR ADDICTED SON'S DEATH

Christopher Cambra's demons were drug addiction and mental-health issues.

Cambra, 35, went berserk three months ago in his parents' Bonita Springs home.

"My son came over for supper and was running around with this big,
butcher knife in his hand," says Travers Cambra, 64. "He was looking
out the windows and yelling 'Cops are coming for me.' "

Travers took him to North Collier Hospital on Nov. 21.

He says hospital staffers subdued his son and sent him to the David
Lawrence Center & Foundation in Naples, a mental-health and
substance-abuse services center.

Finally, Travers and Noreen Cambra felt relief. They found a safe
haven for their son.

Two days later, Christopher Cambra called his parents on Thanksgiving
morning and told them he was being released.

"My son told me: 'They're throwing me out. Come and pick me up,' "
says Noreen Cambra, 60.

Miracle cure? Hardly.

It was Christopher's father's turn to go bonkers.

"I said: 'Wait a minute, are you people out of your minds? Two days
and you're discharging him. If something happens to this kid, I'm
going to blame you.' "

Travers Cambra says the Lawrence Center also scheduled a Dec. 4
assessment for his son.

On Dec. 3 -- 21 hours before his appointment -- Christopher Cambra
drowned in a north Collier County canal.

"I think he had another attack. He was down on the ground with his
hands in the air yelling 'Don't shoot me,' " his father says. "When
he got up, he stumbled into the canal.

"As far as I'm concerned, that David Lawrence Center killed him."

His mother says if the Lawrence Center would have admitted her son,
he might have stuck to a program and be alive today.

Lawrence Center spokeswoman Trista Meister says privacy laws prevent
her from acknowledging Christopher Cambra was a patient.

Meister says she tried to get an official to answer my policy
questions but failed.

She offers this e-mail:

"In general terms, the David Lawrence Center is the Baker Act
Receiving Facility for Collier County. State laws are very specific
and strict criteria must be met in order to hold someone against
their will under the Baker Act Rule.

"All of our substance abuse treatment programs including outpatient
counseling, detoxification and residential treatment are voluntary programs."

In other words, this was the perfect program the Cambras wanted for their son.

"He was not Baker Acted," says Noreen Cambra about a law that
empowers police to take a person to a hospital for mental evaluation.
"He went to David Lawrence voluntarily."

Nine days later, the Cambras say their drug-addled, depressed son
stumbled down an embankment to his death.

"We were told he was paranoid and schizophrenic," Travers Cambra
says. "I don't know about those things, but I know he needed help. I
can't understand why they couldn't have kept him and let a doctor see him.

"That's the bad part. Here, the kid had a problem, He went for help
and got turned away. All the other stuff is B.S.

"David Lawrence did not take care of him."

The Cambras knew the routine. Eight months earlier, they say they
took Christopher to a hospital after they found him in a stupor in
Lakewood, N.J., where the family had a profitable garage door
business until their son and his ex-wife ran it into the ground.

During the last 10 months Travers Cambra says his son sold everything
he owned and spent more than $70,000 on heroin, cocaine and marijuana.

"If the David Lawrence Center would have given me the option, I would
have paid to keep him there, to keep him safe," he says.

"Now, I know he's safe because his ashes are sitting right up there
on the counter."