Hoppy11
02-22-2009, 11:47 AM
This past Friday night I had a very eye opening and scary experience that I feel I should share with you guys because I learned from it too and I hope that you guys can too.
As most of you know I am in college and I do drink, this was a drinking incident. I am also apart of Sigma Phi Epsilon on campus. Friday night was the annual BDO, Beer Drinking Olympics between the Greek organizations on campus. Sounds bad, I know but the event is very closely monitored and there were designated drivers set up. Most of the week we worked ourselves up for this event to do the best possible. Before the event we did a bit of pre gaming but nothing major. At the event there was not heavy drinking going on because we wanted do good in the events. That was an assumption, and it was not true. One of my friends was not binge drinking but he was drinking fast enough to become quite drunk before his event which was one of the last events. Some people had noticed and suggested him to step down and not participate. He still did. The game that was being played is the heaviest drinking games at the event. After the game was over we cut him off and continued to monitor him because we could tell that he had too much.
This is when it started to get hairy. About a half hour after we cut him off he was sitting on a couch, falls over to the floor and vomits. I and a few other people got him up and got him outside. I gave up my coat for him to wear. We got him to one of our DD's and got him away from the event back to his house. I had been drinking so a different DD drove me back to his house so I could continue to help. He threw up on the way home, its a 10 minute drive. When I got to his house he was having trouble standing and fighting everyone that was trying to help him. I stepped in because I knew him the best and calmed him down. The DD's had to leave to go back to the party to drive other people.
After they had left I asked him what he needed he managed to tell me that he again need to vomit. I took him outside and continued to help him. This is when he lost all control of his body. He was no longer able to stand, sit or anything. He also started to vomit uncontrollably. He also soiled himself. This is when I decided to call our president and ask for his help and his advice because I was losing control of the situation. I had already thought of calling 911. He and I agreed that this was out of our hands and needed to call. I hung up the phone with him and called 911, explained the situation and they sent EMS. They got there and took him straight to the hospital. He spent the night and is fine now, he was released at 11am on Saturday.
Why am I telling you guys this? To explain to you that **** happens. We hadn't had an incident happen at our entire school for ever and we practically thought we were invincible even if we weren't willing to admit it. The people involved handled this quite well. We made the decisions that we needed to make and it saved his life. His BAC was just over .3, he was going to die if we didn't make the decisions we made. I saved my friends life, do I want a cookie? No. I am just relieved that I was able to make those decisions. I didn't want to call 911, no one ever does.
So I and everyone did a lot of things right, but not everything. We should have told him that he is not playing in that game and stopped him whether he agreed or not. Should we had even been at that event? Probably not but we did handle it pretty good. Should I have called earlier, yes. As soon as you think you should call, you should call and it is the right decision, always. Another thing that I didn't even think of was the address of the house. They couldn't track my phone because I am not from the area. I knew the road I was on but it was basically a guessing game for the EMS driving down the road. I should have taken note when I got there.
Also, we need to rethink how why drink and why we drink so much. Its a competitive night every time we drink. Why? It shouldn't be. People who drink need to monitor themselves. When you know you are drunk enough to have fun, stop. Who cares if its 4 beers or 12 beers. We need to stop encouraging people to drink heavily and stop caring if people can't drink as much as others.
Am I going to stop drinking? No. But I am going to pay more attention to myself and others with the drinking. Drinking isn't evil. It can be a very good social event if done correctly. So all of you out there who drink please take all of this into account and if something does happen make the call. A hospital bill is a hell of a lot better then a funeral bill.
As most of you know I am in college and I do drink, this was a drinking incident. I am also apart of Sigma Phi Epsilon on campus. Friday night was the annual BDO, Beer Drinking Olympics between the Greek organizations on campus. Sounds bad, I know but the event is very closely monitored and there were designated drivers set up. Most of the week we worked ourselves up for this event to do the best possible. Before the event we did a bit of pre gaming but nothing major. At the event there was not heavy drinking going on because we wanted do good in the events. That was an assumption, and it was not true. One of my friends was not binge drinking but he was drinking fast enough to become quite drunk before his event which was one of the last events. Some people had noticed and suggested him to step down and not participate. He still did. The game that was being played is the heaviest drinking games at the event. After the game was over we cut him off and continued to monitor him because we could tell that he had too much.
This is when it started to get hairy. About a half hour after we cut him off he was sitting on a couch, falls over to the floor and vomits. I and a few other people got him up and got him outside. I gave up my coat for him to wear. We got him to one of our DD's and got him away from the event back to his house. I had been drinking so a different DD drove me back to his house so I could continue to help. He threw up on the way home, its a 10 minute drive. When I got to his house he was having trouble standing and fighting everyone that was trying to help him. I stepped in because I knew him the best and calmed him down. The DD's had to leave to go back to the party to drive other people.
After they had left I asked him what he needed he managed to tell me that he again need to vomit. I took him outside and continued to help him. This is when he lost all control of his body. He was no longer able to stand, sit or anything. He also started to vomit uncontrollably. He also soiled himself. This is when I decided to call our president and ask for his help and his advice because I was losing control of the situation. I had already thought of calling 911. He and I agreed that this was out of our hands and needed to call. I hung up the phone with him and called 911, explained the situation and they sent EMS. They got there and took him straight to the hospital. He spent the night and is fine now, he was released at 11am on Saturday.
Why am I telling you guys this? To explain to you that **** happens. We hadn't had an incident happen at our entire school for ever and we practically thought we were invincible even if we weren't willing to admit it. The people involved handled this quite well. We made the decisions that we needed to make and it saved his life. His BAC was just over .3, he was going to die if we didn't make the decisions we made. I saved my friends life, do I want a cookie? No. I am just relieved that I was able to make those decisions. I didn't want to call 911, no one ever does.
So I and everyone did a lot of things right, but not everything. We should have told him that he is not playing in that game and stopped him whether he agreed or not. Should we had even been at that event? Probably not but we did handle it pretty good. Should I have called earlier, yes. As soon as you think you should call, you should call and it is the right decision, always. Another thing that I didn't even think of was the address of the house. They couldn't track my phone because I am not from the area. I knew the road I was on but it was basically a guessing game for the EMS driving down the road. I should have taken note when I got there.
Also, we need to rethink how why drink and why we drink so much. Its a competitive night every time we drink. Why? It shouldn't be. People who drink need to monitor themselves. When you know you are drunk enough to have fun, stop. Who cares if its 4 beers or 12 beers. We need to stop encouraging people to drink heavily and stop caring if people can't drink as much as others.
Am I going to stop drinking? No. But I am going to pay more attention to myself and others with the drinking. Drinking isn't evil. It can be a very good social event if done correctly. So all of you out there who drink please take all of this into account and if something does happen make the call. A hospital bill is a hell of a lot better then a funeral bill.