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A La Crosse police officer stopped the man, who said he was on his way home to Angell Hall on the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse campus.
He was obviously walking in the wrong direction.
The officer gave him a quick alcohol breath test, which showed 0.275 percent — more than three times the legal limit of intoxication for driving a motor vehicle, 0.08 percent. The UW-L student said he was downtown drinking and walked away from his friends.
Three days earlier, police were called to a downtown La Crosse bar because another 22-year-old man was so drunk he could not stand up, mumbled and didn't remember his address. In fact, the man told police he thought he was in St. Cloud, Minn. His blood-alcohol level was 0.223 percent.
Both men were transported to Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center's detoxification unit. Both incidents occurred shortly after the drowning of UW-L student Jared Dion off Riverside Park.
Officials at Gundersen Lutheran and Franciscan Skemp Medical Center say they are seeing younger people with higher blood-alcohol levels showing up in their emergency rooms. They say it is a reflection of the rise in binge drinking among young people.
‘LIKE A TURTLE ON ITS BACK'
Binge drinking is on the rise in the United States and is climbing fastest among 18- to 20-year-olds, who are too young to drink legally, according to a 2003 survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Since 2000, Gundersen Lutheran has admitted 672 people under the age of 25 to its detox unit. The average blood-alcohol level has been 0.161 percent, or twice the legal limit of intoxication for driving a motor vehicle. According to hospital records, 111 had a blood-alcohol level of 0.20 percent or greater. In the past four years, the highest blood-alcohol limit seen in the detox unit for someone under the age of 25 has been 0.399 percent.
Yet most people in Gundersen Lutheran's detox unit are older than 25. Many of them are chronic alcohol users and alcoholics. Only 15 percent of the 4,562 people seen in Gundersen Lutheran's detox unit since 2000 were younger than 25.
La Crosse Police Chief Edward Kondracki said city police officers have taken 405 people to detox units at the two city hospitals over the past two years. Between 1997 and 2003, police gave out more than 11,000 citations for liquor law violations.
"We're seeing a lot more people in detox," Kondracki said. "But it's only a small portion of the intoxicated persons who come to the attention of police officers. They're not just inebriated. They have to be incapacitated, unable to care for themselves, to go to detox. I've said it before: They're like a turtle on its back."
Kondracki said police officers have the authority to take people to detox units if someone is incapacitated, which is defined as someone who is unconscious or their judgment is so impaired they can't make rational decisions about their need for treatment because they are physically debilitated or could cause harm to themselves or others.
Officers make the call if people are unable to care for themselves, he said.
"We see it all the time," Kondracki said. "During Oktoberfest, we had a college kid looking for his dorm, and we couldn't find it. That's because his dorm is at UW-Oshkosh.
‘DETOX IS A BAND-AID APPROACH'
"It's frustrating for officers because their only intervention for someone so incapacitated is to take the person to the hospital," Kondracki said. "We're fortunate to have two quality detox units in town, but detox is a band-aid approach and a manifestation of a bigger problem, and binge drinking is a symptom of a bigger problem."
In the hospital emergency room, doctors determine whether intoxicated people should be held for up to 24 hours based on the level of alcohol, behavior and whether friends or family can care for them, said Dr. Christine Miller. A medical hold can be placed on someone with serious medical complications for up to 72 hours, she said.
"The young ones are not complicated detox cases," said Miller, medical director of alcohol and drug programs at Gundersen Lutheran. "They often go home if they have friends who can watch them for 24 hours."
When people in the detox unit go home, they will have a consultation with an alcohol and drug counselor to develop a plan for dealing with any drinking or drug problems, she said.
Miller said three-fourths of the young people in the detox unit are men, but binge drinking is increasing among young women.
"I wish we would stop saying that drinking, including binge drinking, is a rite of passage in college, and it's part of growing up," Miller said. "It's Russian Roulette."
Mary Torstveit, UW-L alcohol education coordinator since 1987, said binge drinking can be very dangerous and devastating. "If one of our students ends up in detox, I breathe a sigh of relief because the system has saved this one," Torstveit said.
‘I'VE NEVER SEEN HIGHER' LEVELS
Pat Formanek, emergency medical services coordinator at Franciscan Skemp, said hospital emergency room personnel see two to three intoxicated people under the age of 25 on many nights. Franciscan Skemp had 469 alcohol-related visits to the emergency room in 2003, and 318 people were admitted to the hospital, she said.
"It is common to see college students who have been out binge drinking," Formanek said. "They're usually brought in by police or a concerned friend."
They might need IV fluids and monitoring, she said. If they are admitted, they can be taken to a medical floor or the ICU depending upon medical complications, Formanek said.
"We've seen people come in near death," she said. "A lot of ER visits are alcohol-related and many illnesses can be tracked to alcohol use."
Mary Brague, a registered nurse who conducts assessments in Franciscan Skemp's detox unit, said she is surprised how many people she has seen with blood-alcohol levels of 0.30 to 0.35. "I've never seen higher blood-alcohol levels in all of my 23 years of chemical dependency work than what I see now," Brague said.
About 15 to 20 percent of people in the detox unit are young people, she said.
"A lot of them are drinking for the wrong reasons, as a coping mechanism or they have boyfriend or girlfriend problems, or they just want to be part of a group," Brague said. "People are basically lonely. A history of alcohol abuse in families is also common."
Brague said she often sees hard-core drinkers and alcoholics, who end up in the detox units many times.
"Young people need to look ahead and see what they could become with alcohol abuse," Brague said. "I see them younger and sicker in detox, and sometimes I see the best part of them, when they are sober and the nice person they are."
BLOOD-ALCOHOL CONTENT AND THE BODY
Source: La Crosse Police Department/Phoenix House
Terry Rindfleisch can be reached at (608) 791-8227 or trindfleisch@lacrossetribune.com.
