An Alcohol Overdose Serves as a Wakeup Call for a High School Student

Jeffrey was a high school freshman who typically seemed to be living on the edge.  Jeffrey had a risk taking personality and as a rule wanted to do what his older brothers were doing to have fun. The central glitch with this was that all three of his brothers were at least 21 years old and were for than reason able from a legal point of view to drive a car or truck and to ingest alcohol. 

Jeffrey, on the other hand, had a tough time comprehending that as a fifteen-year-old adolescent he should not be drinking. In fact, conversely, Jeffrey commonly drank with his cronies after school, particularly on the weekends.

One weekend, Jeffrey decided to drive around with some of his older friends.  One of his friends was old enough to buy alcohol.  After buying some wine coolers, wine, and beer, Jeffrey and all of the guys went to a park and drank for about three hours.

A Young Man Loses Consciousness

After drinking around ten alcoholic benerages, Jeffrey started to feel woozy and then vomited. When he lost consciousness on the football field, one of his buddies called 911 for immediate medical assistance. It was fortunate that the call for medical assistance was made because when his guy friends went to the hospital to see Jeffrey, they were informed that Jeffrey had been manifesting alcohol poisoning symptoms.  More specifically, Jeffrey had overdosed on alcohol.

When Your Cronies Drink Too Much

Jeffrey had learned that drinking too much can lead to an alcohol overdose but he never thought that this would affect him. After all, some of his cronies frequently professed that they could drink twenty four or more cans of beer in a couple of hours without experiencing any significant problems.

Based on this, Jeffrey was in point of fact taken aback to hear that he had overdosed on alcohol because he “only” had roughly ten alcoholic beverages.  When he articulated this to the attending healthcare practitioner at the hospital, however, the physicain informed Jeffrey that drinking ten bottles of beer over a two or three hour period of time could certainly be substantially more alcohol than can be metabolized by the body.  The healthcare professional further articulated how too much alcohol can cause the brain to shut down a person’s respiratory system and that when this comes about, a person can pass away.

The First Symptom of Abusive Drinking

This was the first indication to Jeffrey that he was drinking in an unsafe fashion and that there are consequences for such behavior.  The healthcare practitioner told Jeffrey that he was a lucky individual because he almost lost his life from an alcohol overdose the night before.

The physicain also conversed with Jeffrey’s parents and suggested that they get alcohol therapy for Jeffrey.  His parents were thrilled that Jeffrey was out of harm’s way and notified the healthcare practitioner that they would follow through on getting Jeffrey alcohol counseling.

While chatting with his parents, Jeffrey told them that there must be a special reason why he did not pass away and that he felt grateful that he was still alive.  He also told his parents that the most ironic part about the entire drinking situation was that he had learned about alcohol poisoning the previous six week grading period at school.

When Listening in Class Can Affect Your Life

At the time, what his health instructor, Mr. Franklin, was saying didn’t seem to make too much sense to Jeffrey.  Due to the fact that he almost passed away, however, he felt that he should have listened more attentively in health class and applied what he had learned to his daily living.

Jeffrey informed his parents that he couldn’t wait to go back to Mr. Franklin’s classroom and apologize to Mr. Franklin for not showing more attention to a subject that was as pertinent as learning about alcohol abuse and how to stay away from alcohol poisoning.

His parents smiled at Jeffrey and said that they were elated with the way he was being responsible for his dangerous drinking actions.  All he had to do now was to let this near-death experience impact his life in a productive manner so that he would never again experience an alcohol overdose.