Police hope his story, luckily of survival, saves more lives

It happens too often in college towns.

A young adult spends the night drinking themselves to oblivion only for someone to notice when it’s almost too late.

For one 19-year-old, a State College police officer on patrol observed just in time how dire a condition he was in. The unconscious man, who was not identified by police, was being carried by friends Saturday night near the intersection of D and Wren alleys. The officer immediately called emergency personnel to the scene.

It is a routine occurrence, according to State College police Lt. Keith Robb, for officers to stop someone or for people to call in cases of potential alcohol overdoses.

“I think that goes unrecognized a lot of times, because it’s such the standard that we get the ambulance, get them to the hospital and detox them right away and nothing happens to them,” he said. “But if we didn’t have that effort out there we would be dealing with more tragedy than we do right now.”

While police typically do not issue press releases on this type of case, this one was different due to its severity.

“It was unusual that he had to be placed on a ventilator,” Robb said. “Every weekend we deal with alcohol overdoses, but not to the level where someone is placed in the ICU.”

The man, a University of Massachusetts student, had a blood alcohol content of 0.490 percent. Some people will lose consciousness with a BAC below 0.30. A BAC above that could lead to death by alcohol poisoning and loss of vital life functions..

EMTs and paramedics treated and drove the man to Mount Nittany Medical Center where he aspirated and stopped breathing, but doctors and nurses were able to resuscitate him. An investigation revealed that he had been binge drinking vodka.

“This is one of those teaching moments where a family almost lost a son,” Robb said. “A young man almost lost his life. 19 is way too young to die over a bottle of vodka.”

Police hope the young man’s story, luckily of survival, resonates with the public.

“Whether we have someone falling out of a window, off a balcony or stepping in front of a car, we always have these types of preventable accidents,” Robb said. “I always like to say that predictable is preventable. If you down a bottle of vodka in a short period of time, chances are you’ll get extremely sick or could die. That’s why we try to put this type of warning out there, to prevent this from happening.”

“There’s nothing more tragic than having to notify a parent that their child is dead.”

Police want to wait for the man to fully recover before issuing a citation. Robb said he may be eligible for the Youthful Offender Program.

This story was originally published September 27, 2016 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Police hope his story, luckily of survival, saves more lives."