When Alcohol Poisoning Serves as a Wakeup Call for an Adolescent

Jeffrey was a high school ninth grader who typically seemed to be living on the edge. Jeffrey had a daring personality and frequently wanted to do what his older brothers were doing to have fun. The basic problem with this was that all three of his brothers were at least 21 years old and were for than reason able from a legal standpoint to drive a car and to ingest alcohol.

Jeffrey, conversely, had a tough time accepting the reality that as a fifteen-year-old youth he should not be drinking alcoholic beverages. In fact, conversely, Jeffrey commonly drank with his buddies after school, especially on the weekends.

One weekend, Jeffrey decided to drive around with some of his older pals. One of his cronies was old enough to buy alcohol. After purchasing some wine coolers, wine, and beer, Jeffrey and his friends went to a public recreational area and drank for about three hours.

A Young Man Loses Consciousness

After drinking roughly ten bottles of beer, Jeffrey started to feel queasy and then vomited. When he became unconscious on the soccer field, one of his pals called 911 for help. It was fortunate that the call for emergency assistance was made because when his friends went to the hospital to see Jeffrey, they were informed that Jeffrey had been suffering from alcohol poisoning symptoms. More to the point, Jeffrey had overdosed on alcohol.

When Your Buddies Drink Abusively

Jeffrey had heard that drinking heavily can result in an alcohol overdose but he never thought that this could ever affect him. After all, some of his guy friends time after time declared that they could drink twenty or more bottles of beer at one sitting without suffering from any critical setbacks.

Based on this, Jeffrey was actually shocked to find out that he had overdosed on alcohol because he “only” had around ten drinks. When he told this to the attending doctor at the hospital, on the other hand, the healthcare professional told Jeffrey that drinking ten alcoholic beverages over a two or three hour time frame could surely be significantly more alcohol than can be processed by the body. The physicain further emphasized how too much alcohol can cause the brain to shut down a person’s respiratory system and that when this occurs, a person can perish.

The First Sign of Abusive Drinking

This was the first word of warning to Jeffrey that he was drinking in a hazardous fashion and that there are effects for such actions. The doctor told Jeffrey that he was a lucky young man because he almost died from an alcohol overdose the previous night.

The healthcare professional also talked to Jeffrey’s parents and suggested that they get alcohol counseling for Jeffrey. His parents were overjoyed that Jeffrey was safe and sound and told the healthcare practitioner that they would look into getting Jeffrey alcohol rehabilitation.

While chatting with his parents, Jeffrey notified them that there must be a solid reason why he did not pass away and that he felt grateful that he was still alive. He also informed his parents that the strangest part about the entire drinking situation was that he had learned about alcohol poisoning the previous six week grading period in health class.

When Paying Attention in Class Can Make a Difference

At the time, what his health instructor, Mr. Franklin, was teaching didn’t seem to make too much sense to Jeffrey. Since he almost died, conversely, he felt that he should have listened more closely in Mr. Franklin’s health class and applied what he had learned to his personal life.

Jeffrey informed his parents that he couldn’t wait to go to Mr. Franklin’s classroom and make an apology to Mr. Franklin for not showing more attention to a topic that was as important as learning about alcohol abuse and how to keep away from alcohol poisoning.

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