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Parents'' love, time couldn''t save Seth Heroin stole 21-year- old''s exuberance, then his life.

Article Excerpt
Byline: Christy Gutowski Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer

Editor's note: This is part of a series of occasional reports about area teens and young adults whose deaths this year have been attributed to substance abuse.

When Seth Lieberman was a young boy, he was stung by a jellyfish as he swam in the Atlantic Ocean during a family vacation in Pompano Beach, Fla.

From the shoreline, his father spotted the boy jumping up violently in the water, flailing his arms as if he were drowning. Eric Lieberman rushed to his son's side.

For years afterward, the father began having a recurring nightmare. In it, he tried to save a drowning Seth, but each time the distance between the two grew wider and he was unable to reach him. He watched as his son's piercing blue eyes and beautiful blond hair disappeared into the ocean.

In January, father and son again found themselves at Pompano Beach. But it wasn't vacation that had again drawn them to the Florida shoreline; Seth had been tossed out of a nearby drug treatment center, a failure that was becoming all too familiar for the young heroin addict.

As the two walked the beach, talking about Seth's future, a feeling of impending doom welled within Eric. He knew Seth again was in trouble. This time, as in his dream, Eric feared Seth could not be saved.

The fear proved prophetic on Feb. 17, just six days after his 21st birthday, when Seth Porter Lieberman died of a heroin overdose. He left behind his parents, a brother and a 6-year-old daughter.

Seth battled dual demons: He abused prescription and recreational drugs while suffering from depression, which first gripped him in his early teens.

He made numerous attempts at rehabilitation through treatment centers, but often was rejected from or thrown out of programs.

But even in the face of that, his parents never gave up on trying to save Seth. They spared no expense on treatment, and they researched their options obsessively.

"We were consumed with saving Seth," said his mother, Mary Kay. "It became our entire life."

The class clown

Seth was an artistic kid. He loved karate, but hated most sports. He took guitar, drum and violin lessons. He played in a band.

His parents describe him as sensitive, sweet and genuine. He loved movies, just as his mother did, and often acted out his favorite roles. Seth even did some modeling jobs as a kid.

But it was his sense of humor that most remember.

"Seth was a goofball," his mother says. "He was the class clown. He always got away with it because he had that charismatic, sparkling personality. People liked him so much...