Meth Lab Baby: A child's fight for life

BAY COUNTY, Fla. - It seems like there have been quite a few meth lab explosions in the Gulf Coast area lately. Usually if anyone is injured, it's the people cooking the meth.

But sometimes, there are innocent victims. One of them was Johna Osborn.

Like most one-year-old's, she didn't have a care in the world. But Bay County, Florida deputies say on the morning of August 23, 2009, Johna's father's meth lab exploded, and turned her world upside down.

Sheriff Frank McKeithen says it was a "shake and bake" lab.

"The shake and bakes are usually done in a plastic bottle, and they're not made to contain the amount of pressure that's created when the meth is cooking. Occasionally, they will erupt and explode. The flames and the liquid come out like a flame thrower," he said.

Johna was Life Flighted to the Joseph M. Still Burn Center in Augusta, Georgia.

"Initially, it looked like a large portion of it was second degree which, unfortunately, it converted, and ended up being third degree and we had to skin graph it,” said Dr. Fred Mullins.

Osborn was he was not cooking meth.

"The only shake and bake I've ever heard is when my mama cooked chicken when I was coming up, shake and bake. I have never heard of a shake and bake meth lab or whatever. I've never heard of it,' he said.

Osborn told deputies the fire started when he was cooking French fries.

"I put some oil on the stove. I went to the bathroom, used the restroom, went back to the kitchen, washed my hands, and I did like that in the sink. And I looked over at the grease, and it didn't look hot. I did my hand like that in the grease and it started jumping. It jumped out, 'Whooffffff!'" he said.

Osborn said he picked up the burning pan and tried to run outside with it.

"The back door was screwed shut from the outside. I couldn't get out. I had a flame. My newborn was in a swing, he has long legs on him. And my baby was in the playpen. I'm coming through the front door with a flame, I'm getting burned, bad. But I didn’t want to burn the man's house down either. And I tripped over one of the legs. When I tripped, I looked and my baby's... I flip her out, her mama gets her and I told her to call 911," he said.

When deputies and firefighters arrived at the trailer on Mylisa Road, Osborn wasn't there.

"I had a warrant on me in Georgia, probation, and when the ambulance got there, I stepped around the corner. I did not leave my youngun until the ambulance got there," said Osborn.

When Osborn saw the picture of his daughter's playpen, he stared as if he didn't believe what he saw.

"It wasn't like that when I flipped her out of it," he said.

When Osborn saw the picture of his daughter in the hospital, tears fell from his eyes.

"She got it bad didn't she?" he said.

Sheriff McKeithen said Osborn's girlfriend and Johna's mother, Tessa Wagy, also told deputies and doctors that Johna was burned by a grease fire.

But when Johna wasn't responding to treatment, Wagy had a different story.

"During an interview with the mother, she actually told the guys that her husband was making meth. She bought the Sudafed, the ephedrine to make it with," said Sheriff McKeithen.

After a more thorough search of the trailer, investigators found evidence of a meth lab inside.

"We found some lithium batteries that were actually peeled, and this is what they do to get the lithium out. In the bathroom we found where they had separated a cold pack and one of the packs was laying in the bathroom sink. Empty boxes of ephedrine. Everything you needed to make meth with," said Sheriff McKeithen.

Deputies also found the pan Osborn said he was cooking in, but there weren't any burned French fries.

"The more we looked and the more we saw, the more prevalent the fact they were making meth," said Sheriff McKeithen.

When FOX10 News interviewed Osborn after he was arrested, he tried to explain why he couldn't have been cooking meth.

"They found sudafedrine or something. I don't even take sudafedrine, you know what I mean? I really don’t. I'm from Georgia, and my eyes and stuff didn't adjust down here because about dern near every morning I have to pop my eyes open, I sneeze all day, so I was taking Benedryl. I don't know where the sudafedrine came from. And I've just been thinking, they sell it to you over the counter, but when you go home, they're going to bust you for meth. I don't understand it, you know what I mean? I really don't."

He even said someone else was using meth in the trailer before he moved in.

"There were Mexicans living in the trailer before me and I heard they got busted for meth, and somebody across the parkway got busted for meth. Why would I? And wouldn't it be easier to buy it than to make it if I was going to consume it or use it or whatever?"

Osborn and Wagy were in court on October 8, 2009. They both pleaded not guilty to charges of aggravated child abuse, manufacturing methamphetamine resulting in injury to a child, and possession of a listed chemical. They will go back before Judge Dedee Costello on November 18.

Johna is still recovering from critical injuries.

"A burn wound doesn't actually heal for at least a year. In children it can be longer. So, her body and the scarring will go through some changes," said Dr. Mullins.

Physical scarring isn't the only issue Johna will have to deal with as she gets older.

"They do go through a lot of emotional things that we keep an eye on, and at different stages in life we address those to get her over them the best way we can," said Dr. Mullins.

Sheriff McKeithen says cases like Johna's reminds him why be got into law enforcement.

"I'm a big, tough guy, but things like this get to us and we see the worst of the worst and we've been seeing it. I've been seeing it for 35 years. Any time you see a child hurt, it just touches you and then you realize most people don't know why we do our jobs and this reminds us of why we do what we do," he added.

As for Osborn and Wagy, he says, "You can be a meth head and you can be a parent, but you can't be both."

Baby Johna has been released from the hospital and is with a foster family in an undisclosed area.

Johna will have to make regular visits to the burn center in Georgia.

Doctors say she is doing well with treatment, but will never fully recover.

For information on how to help children in this type of situation, or if you're interested in helping to start a chapter on Mothers against Methamphetamine in Mobile, click here.