BAC of .55!!!!

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Psych, ER, Resp/Med, LTC, Education.

Anyone see the story about the college kid from I think SUNY Geneseo who died Sat from "alcohol poisoning" they say.......I just heard on the news he had been drinking from Wed till Sat when he died and his Blood Alcohol Content was supposedly .55!! ....though I have to wonder here......BAC is achieved by having a (live) person blow into a breathalizer..... how did they do that unless maybe he was alive when they first got there and they got it before he died.....and if he was bad enough to die shortly after, his "blow" could not have been 100%.....I gotta wonder what his BAL was......I would think they would get one....can they after someone is dead?...I would think so......in my experience in psych ER the BAL shows even higher in comparison.........That is REALLY high!!!!! CRAZY!!!! Scary. I hope maybe a lesson to other binge drinkers!! Sad he had to die, so young.

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BAC can be checked by blood tests too......highest I've seen in person was a 0.47. Walking and talking. Crazy!

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Specializes in Psych, ER, Resp/Med, LTC, Education.

Where are you getting that info? Just curious....I was taught when I was in school myself and taught my students when I was a health teacher in my last life, and the docs I work with in Psych ER--specifially a psych MD who also is a chemical dependency specialist pysch MD has said that BAC is done via breathalizer and BAL is via a blood sample...........and BAL with blood is what he demands for accuracy for all of out patients with ETOH on board (and thats a lot of drunks!! LOL)

Curious what you have heard?

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Prehospital.

I have seen these terms used somewhat interchangeably. Breath alcohol content is the estimation of blood alcohol level. I once saw a patient with a level over 900 mg/dl.... he was tubed and almost died but some of those functioning alcoholics can build up quite a tolerance. I bet a lot of the VA nurses on here have seen some pretty high levels as well.

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Where are you getting that info? Just curious....I was taught when I was in school myself and taught my students when I was a health teacher in my last life, and the docs I work with in Psych ER--specifially a psych MD who also is a chemical dependency specialist pysch MD has said that BAC is done via breathalizer and BAL is via a blood sample...........and BAL with blood is what he demands for accuracy for all of out patients with ETOH on board (and thats a lot of drunks!! LOL)

Curious what you have heard?

I'm sorry; my mistake...I didn't realize there was a difference between BAL and BAC. Kudos to your very polite way of pointing out my oops! :)

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Specializes in ER.

This is a total violation of that kid's confidentiality, and guessing at what did or didn't happen doesn't help anything.

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

I had one with a BAL of 0.8.

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I had one with a BAL of 0.8.

I'm assuming they didn't survive that one...

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

He lived. He was a chronic alcoholic.

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