I know I am interrupting my 10 Day You Challenge, but this is worth it.
Last week an 18-year old student at UCF passed away after drinking at a Fraternity Party. She went home to an off-campus apartment, where she passed out, and her roommate called 911. Here is a link to the news story...
Her roommate (obviously) did the right thing in calling 911, but the University officials and other students are worried that had this been another student, perhaps one who had been drinking, themselves and were underage, would they have called for help?
I was immediately brought back to an experience my freshmen year of college, at Elon in North Carolina. It was late at night, I still hadn't admitted to myself that I had insomnia and needed help with it, and so was sitting on the front "stoop" of our building with a friend who was also a night owl. I lived on campus at the time, in a building that was actually three suite-style dorms connected to one another.
My friend and I were in the middle of an all consuming discussion (I wish I could say I still talk to this girl but I don't), and all of a sudden we saw two guys, the second of which was carrying a girl like a sack of potatoes, thrown over his shoulder. She was obviously unconscious. I had never seen someone passed out like this and had nothing to go off of for reference, but in my gut I knew she was not okay.
The boys were stumbling and were barely able to carry her, and as we were watching they actually dropped her, luckily the boy made a quick half turn and fell onto grass rather than concrete, probably the first thing that saved that girl's life that night.
I looked at my friend and asked her what we should do. We had similar thinking brains and I knew she would think the same as me. We had to help.
The two of us stood, and made our way over to the trio. We asked the boys what we could to to help, and they insisted they were fine, obviously not wanting to involve us because they didn't want to get into trouble. We insisted though, and I ended up with the girls feet, my friend with her torso and the boys precariously with her middle as we made our way up three flights of stairs to the top floor of the last building.
I don't know if any of you have ever carried an unconscious girl, age approximately 18, 5'5"ish... It is not easy. I used to lift people above my head in High School, and this my friends... This was different.
We made our way to the top floor where the girl's roommate, who was also plastered and had come out to "help" at some point, insisted that we should go and that she could take it from there. I made sure the girl was on her side, that she was breathing and that she had water near her, etc... But I still didn't feel right about leaving her.
After much discussion about what to do, my friend and I ultimately retired to our separate rooms, but about 2 minutes after I had laid down there was a knock on my suite door. The RA from the building over wanted to know what I knew.
The RA called the police, paramedics and campus police, also the Area Director... Pretty soon there was a lot of commotion outside of my building.
It took 10 minutes for the paramedics to revive the girl, and they ultimately took her to the hospital to have her stomach pumped. She survived.
The boys that were originally carrying her hadn't made it far, and they were found and given alcohol citations. They were told that if they had been the ones to call the RA or the police, rather than my friend they would have had "medical amnesty", meaning they wouldn't have been able to get in trouble for their own alcohol consumption.
UCF is now pushing for a rule like this, and honestly, I am surprised they didn't already have this in place, especially on a campus that is as "wet" as UCF's campus is.
My point: if your friend has been drinking and looks sick, make sure she is okay, and make sure that you don't leave her if she is not. People take drinking entirely too lightly in my opinion. It is a very serious drug and is very dangerous. Please be safe everyone, and watch out for your friends.
