Drinking and passing out
What should you do if your friend or relative passes out from over-drinking? What should you do if you have had a bit too much to drink yourself?
A client of mine told me this story about a friend of hers that needlessly passed away, and I thought that there was a lesson here that we could all benefit from. There is a lot of publicity around the idea of not drinking and driving, but I haven’t seen anything in the media about the potential dangers of drinking and passing out.
If you have taken first aid, you know that when someone is unconscious, that person needs to be placed in the recovery position, or on their side with their head tilted back slightly, but the face pointing towards the floor. The reason for this is to drain any vomit.
My client’s friend responsibly took himself home after drinking too much, laid on his back on his bed, passed out, then suffocated to death on his own vomit. Probably if he had been lying on his side, he would be alive today. So, the moral of the story is, if your friend passes out, place him on his side, face angled towards the floor slightly. You may just be saving a life. And if you think you have had a bit too much to drink, lie yourself down on your side when you go to sleep, just to be safe.
Perhaps this info should be taught in the schools? What do you think?
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barbara bills said,
May 26, 2013 @ 6:44 am
Absolutely, it should be posted in teen mags & taught in school. We need to embrace this reality of teen living and add support where needed to get them through rather than morally putting our heads in the sand.
smart college grad said,
May 28, 2013 @ 6:46 am
In college, my friends and I used to “backpack” people if they were drinking and wanted to “just go home and pass out.”
Backpack – get a back pack; stuff it with lots of big, heavy text books; put the backpack on the drunk person; lay them down on their side
There is no way the person would be able to roll onto their back with a huge backpack on.
Vreni said,
May 28, 2013 @ 12:51 pm
Perfect! I hope everyone reads your comment!