Andy was a ninth grader who commonly seemed to be living on the edge. Andy had a risk taking personality and commonly wanted to do what his older brothers were doing for fun. The primary problem with this was that all three of his brothers were at least 21 years old and were thus able from a legal point of view to drive a car or truck and to consume alcohol.
Andy, however, had a difficult time understanding that as a fifteen-year-old teenager he should not be drinking alcoholic beverages. In fact, conversely, Andy commonly drank with his guy friends after school, largely on the weekends.
One weekend, Andy was invited to drive around with some of his older pals. One of his pals was old enough to purchase alcohol. After buying some beer, wine, and wine coolers, Andy and all of the guys went to a recreational area and drank for around two or three hours.
After drinking around ten glasses of wine, Andy started to feel queasy and then vomited. When he became unconscious on the baseball field, one of his guy friends called 911 for immediate medical assistance. It was fortunate that the call for medical assistance was made because when his cronies went to the hospital to see Andy, they learned that Andy had been going through alcohol poisoning symptoms. In short, Andy had experienced an alcohol overdose.
After getting alcohol poisoning treatment, Andy was in reality astonished to learn that he had overdosed on alcohol because he "only" had approximately five or ten drinks. When he articulated this to the attending doctor at the hospital, in spite of this, the healthcare practitioner notified Andy that drinking five or ten cans of beer over a two or three hour time frame could certainly be substantially more alcohol than can be processed by the body. The healthcare practitioner further emphasized how too much alcohol can cause the brain to shut down an individual's respiratory system and that when this comes about, an individual can pass away.
This was the first word of warning to Andy that he was drinking in a hazardous fashion and that there are ramifications for such behavior. The healthcare practitioner told Andy that he was a fortunate young man because he almost perished from an alcohol overdose the previous night.
The doctor also spoke to Andy's parents and suggested that they get alcohol rehabilitation for Andy. His parents were jubilant that Andy was safe and sound and notified the healthcare professional that they would look into getting Andy alcohol therapy.
While conversing with his parents, Andy told them that there must be a good reason why he did not pass away and that he felt a sense of thankfulness that he was still alive. He also told his parents that the weirdest part about the entire drinking occurrence was that he had learned about alcohol poisoning the previous six week grading period in Mr. Johnson's health class.
At the time, what his health teacher, Mr. Johnson, was articulating didn't seem to make too much sense to Andy. Now that he almost died, then again, he felt that he should have listened more intently in health class and applied what he had learned to his life.
Andy notified his parents that he couldn't wait to go back to Mr. Johnson's classroom and apologize to Mr. Johnson for not paying better attention to something that was as noteworthy as learning about alcohol poisoning.