Beer pong more likely to result in alcohol poisoning

A student was found dead in a fraternity house at the University of Oklahoma Sept. 30. A sophomore girl also was found dead outside a fraternity house at Colorado State University after consuming 40 drinks in an 11-hour period, according to reports. A Virginia Tech student died two weeks ago from drinking heavily for five hours.

An estimated 4,000 people die from an overdose of alcohol each year, according to a survey conducted by Remove Intoxicated Drivers.

Alcohol poisoning is defined as the level of blood alcohol at which one’s health or life is threatened, according to Dr. David L. Shank, an emergency room doctor at Rockingham Memorial Hospital.

Not all drinking will result in alcohol poisoning. High-risk drinking is much more likely to result in poisoning than low-risk drinking, said Cannie Campbell, associate director of health promotions. High-risk drinkers are those who play drinking games such as beer pong and quarters, where a large amount of alcohol is consumed in a short amount of time. Low-risk drinkers tend to space out their drinking over time, or drink water between each beer.

Campbell said that because alcohol is a depressant, as Blood Alcohol Content rises, all body functions begin to slow to the point that the entire body shuts down, putting the drinker in a coma, from which he or she eventually can die. According to "Facts on Tap," a person can blackout when his or her BAC reaches .15, stops breathing at .35, and a person will go into a coma when it reaches .4. The number of drinks it takes to reach these levels varies for each person.

"You can die at a blood alcohol between .5 and .6, but of course there are always exceptions, but very few," Shank said.

Alcohol poisoning may be hard to spot if you don’t know what you’re looking for. "There definitely isn’t an absolute, like this is what it’s going to be," Campbell said. There are, however, signs that can tell you when it is time to get help.

Slow breathing, less than eight times a minute is one of the signs of alcohol poisoning to look for, according to Campbell.

Other things Campbell said to look for are blue fingernails or lips or cold clammy skin, as these are signs of a lack of oxygen. Simmons said, "Basically, it’s suffering from hypoxia, lack of oxygen."

Going in and out of consciousness is another difficult sign to recognize.

If people’s eyes are rolling back in their head, they fall asleep in the middle of a sentence or you cannot wake them up, they are losing consciousness.

When a person comes into the ER with alcohol poisoning, or what they think is alcohol poisoning, the person will be put under surveillance and allowed to sleep.

Shanks said they will be watched because the BAC can continue to rise and the person may need his or her airways protected to get enough oxygen. He said the police are not called when a student is brought into the ER with alcohol poisoning, even if he or she is underage.

Occasionally the doctors will have to pump someone’s stomach, but Shank said, "It’s extremely rare to pump someone’s stomach because putting a tube down [someone’s] esophagus could do more harm than good."

JMU has many programs to warn students of the dangers of excessive drinking.

When students turn 21, the Office of Health Promotions sends them birthday cards encouraging them to be responsible.

OHP also has programs during freshman orientation informing students.