Post by Ryan Cunningham on Jul 30, 2013 19:33:58 GMT -5
Right, so I never really thought about it much until Sunday night. I had just got off a 40 minute train ride from having a good day out with friends, it was thunder and lightning weather, pissing it down, too. There's a group of fourteen year olds, intoxicated to the point I could pretty much hear their livers crying for mercy, just stumbling home, half of them carried by parents who were dragging their children into cars, the others stumbling off or helping drunker friends home. I was walking out, there's this ticket machine about 100 metres from where the incident happened which I'm about to describe, so you have a rough idea of how far I was from the thud, which was why I ran to what happened.
So, I was waiting for my ride home for me and a friend, then I hear this massive thud and a scream of sheer terror, so i look up and see this girl kneeling next to her friend shaking her, so I run over and I know something is up, so I explain who I am, what I do for a living and I need to have a look and ask what happened. This girl had collapsed and the thud I heard was her head smacking against a brick wall, so at this point I check for consciousness, which there is none, breathing and pulse, thank fuck it's there, then for obvious external trauma. This girl is laying in a pool of her own blood from smacking her head, to which I tell the girls "phone an ambulance" and then they say "no, her mum will be so pissed off that we're all drunk". At this point I told them that she's possibly got some massive bleeding going on, she's unconscious and intoxicated, she may have fractured or cracked her skull or something, she could die at literally any given moment if her injuries are bad enough and without a decent light, I can't see how bad they are. So I get on the phone to the ambulance service and explain what's gone down, ambulance and police are there within minutes and me and the paramedic waste no time getting her into the ambulance and getting lines into her and taking her observations to get a rough idea of what's going on with her. I left her friend with my phone number to give to her parents if they want to talk to me about it, and funnily enough today I got a phone call from them. They actually thanked me for looking after her but she's staying in hospital for a few days and they had no idea she was drinking alcohol.
Now, the legal drinking age in England is eighteen, which personally, I think it's fine at this age. I even think it could be possibly lowered to seventeen, but underage drinking at fourteen and getting into that state, then parents saying they have no idea their child was drinking? Surely, they'd be wondering where her child was, this was at nearly midnight. Then there's the case of her friend. "her mum will be pissed off that we're all drunk". I'M FUCKING SORRY BUT IF MY FRIEND WAS LAYING THERE UNCONSCIOUS IN A POOL OF BLOOD WHICH WAS SHOWING NO SIGN OF EASING UP WITH SOMEONE YOU'D NEVER MET STANDING OVER THEM CLAIMING TO WORK IN HEALTH CARE AND TRYING TO DESPERATELY MAKE SURE THEY'RE ALIVE AND WRAP THEIR HEAD UP TO PREVENT FURTHER BLEEDING, I'D FUCKING LISTEN TO THE GUY. People can become so selfish when they drink, it makes me wonder how fourteen year olds get hold of alcohol. I began drinking when I was fifteen/sixteen, I found it impossible to get hold of alcohol unless I pinched a few off my dad and he knew where I was, who I was with, he'd take me there and pick me up at about midnight/oneish and I'd literally take four-eight cans of beer, depending on how long I was there at the party for. I think that parents need to teach their children to drink responsibly, personally, mine did, I've turned out fine. Yeah, fair, I've had a few wild ones with my friends since I turned eighteen and got absolutely obliterated myself. Difference is, I'm legal to do it.
Where do you stand?
this turned into such a rant, sorry.
So, I was waiting for my ride home for me and a friend, then I hear this massive thud and a scream of sheer terror, so i look up and see this girl kneeling next to her friend shaking her, so I run over and I know something is up, so I explain who I am, what I do for a living and I need to have a look and ask what happened. This girl had collapsed and the thud I heard was her head smacking against a brick wall, so at this point I check for consciousness, which there is none, breathing and pulse, thank fuck it's there, then for obvious external trauma. This girl is laying in a pool of her own blood from smacking her head, to which I tell the girls "phone an ambulance" and then they say "no, her mum will be so pissed off that we're all drunk". At this point I told them that she's possibly got some massive bleeding going on, she's unconscious and intoxicated, she may have fractured or cracked her skull or something, she could die at literally any given moment if her injuries are bad enough and without a decent light, I can't see how bad they are. So I get on the phone to the ambulance service and explain what's gone down, ambulance and police are there within minutes and me and the paramedic waste no time getting her into the ambulance and getting lines into her and taking her observations to get a rough idea of what's going on with her. I left her friend with my phone number to give to her parents if they want to talk to me about it, and funnily enough today I got a phone call from them. They actually thanked me for looking after her but she's staying in hospital for a few days and they had no idea she was drinking alcohol.
Now, the legal drinking age in England is eighteen, which personally, I think it's fine at this age. I even think it could be possibly lowered to seventeen, but underage drinking at fourteen and getting into that state, then parents saying they have no idea their child was drinking? Surely, they'd be wondering where her child was, this was at nearly midnight. Then there's the case of her friend. "her mum will be pissed off that we're all drunk". I'M FUCKING SORRY BUT IF MY FRIEND WAS LAYING THERE UNCONSCIOUS IN A POOL OF BLOOD WHICH WAS SHOWING NO SIGN OF EASING UP WITH SOMEONE YOU'D NEVER MET STANDING OVER THEM CLAIMING TO WORK IN HEALTH CARE AND TRYING TO DESPERATELY MAKE SURE THEY'RE ALIVE AND WRAP THEIR HEAD UP TO PREVENT FURTHER BLEEDING, I'D FUCKING LISTEN TO THE GUY. People can become so selfish when they drink, it makes me wonder how fourteen year olds get hold of alcohol. I began drinking when I was fifteen/sixteen, I found it impossible to get hold of alcohol unless I pinched a few off my dad and he knew where I was, who I was with, he'd take me there and pick me up at about midnight/oneish and I'd literally take four-eight cans of beer, depending on how long I was there at the party for. I think that parents need to teach their children to drink responsibly, personally, mine did, I've turned out fine. Yeah, fair, I've had a few wild ones with my friends since I turned eighteen and got absolutely obliterated myself. Difference is, I'm legal to do it.
Where do you stand?
this turned into such a rant, sorry.