Narconon Arrowhead Provides Essential Advice on How to Keep a Person from Dying Due to Alcohol Poisoning
While it may not be possible to prevent young people from drinking, whether they are of legal drinking age or not, it is possible to prevent person from dying from alcohol poisoning.
Alcohol poisoning is not just “being drunk.” It is an overdose of alcohol that either causes a person to stop breathing or creates conditions (such as vomited material that is inhaled) that cause death.
It can happen that the friends of a young person who has drunk too much may put the person to bed, thinking that he or she will just “sleep it off.” What happens instead is that the young person never wakes up again.
“It’s important for young people to know ahead of time when alcohol consumption has reached a dangerous level,” said Derry Hallmark, Head of Admissions of Narconon Arrowhead, a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in Canadian, Oklahoma. “The right handling can keep a person from dying of alcohol poisoning. By publishing this information, we hope to educate young people on how to help a friend who has drunk too much and thereby save lives.”
Of course, the first recommendation is to not drink too much. While blood alcohol concentration (BAC) will vary depending on a person’s body size and how much they ate while they were drinking, here’s a general guide for an average-sized male body.
It takes about four drinks to bring a 150-lb. male to the legal limit for driving. This is four shots or the equivalent: four beers, four glasses of wine or four wine coolers. A smaller woman would reach this legal limit sooner. There is also some evidence that women’s bodies process alcohol more slowly than a men’s meaning that continued drinking could easily .
The federally-mandated legal limit for driving is .08% BAC. A person is impaired as a driver before this, and an inexperienced driver may be pushed past their ability to drive at a much lower BAC. In many states, the tolerated BAC for an underage driver is ZERO!
It also takes time for a person to feel the effects of drinking, so if alcohol is consumed rapidly, a person can easily shoot his BAC to dangerous levels before he even feels drunk.
What if a person isn’t driving but drinks a lot of shots? Is this safe, just because they are not driving? It is not only dangerous, it can be and has been fatal. Unfortunately, it is a custom among some groups to take a young person to a bar to consume as many shots as possible on their twenty-first birthday. A bucket is provided for the person to vomit into. If they vomit up most of the liquor drunk, they may be all right. If they don’t, they can overdose on alcohol and never see their twenty-second birthday.
Like Adam Boncela of Ohio State. He died on his 21st birthday with a BAC of .37%. And Amanda Jax of Minnesota State University. Christopher Berry celebrated his 22nd birthday with heavy drinking and died with a BAC of .459%. A BAC of .35% to .5% can and does kill.
How to Save a Person’s Life
Please read these guidelines provided by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism carefully. You may need to use them to save a person’s life someday.
Watch for these signs: Mental confusion, stupor, coma, unresponsiveness. Slow breathing (fewer than eight breaths per minute) or irregular breathing. Low body temperature, blue skin, lips or nails. Paleness. Vomiting. Person can’t walk or can barely move.
A person manifesting these symptoms should never be left alone. They should be taken immediately to a hospital or 911 should be called. The solution some people have of putting the person in a “safe” position so they won’t inhale vomited material is completely inadequate.
The Narconon Arrowhead drug and alcohol recovery center helps people who have developed the habit of drinking too much and who can’t help themselves. Practicing moderation during drinking means both that you will never need the kind of drug rehabilitation offered at Narconon Arrowhead and that you will keep yourself out of danger of alcohol poisoning. Please use this information to keep other people out of danger as well.
References:
http://www2.courtinfo.ca.gov/stopteendui/_pdf/stages_of_intoxication.pdf
http://www.dmv.ny.gov/dmanual/chapter09-manual.htm
http://pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/GraduationFacts/NIAAA_graduation_flyer.pdf
http://compelledtoact.com/Tragic_listing/Main_listing_victims_cause.htm#Cause
For information on the Narconon program including Narconon Objectives click here.
Narconon has many locations including Narconon Georgia. Call 800-468-6933 for more information.
