A coroner has joined the State Pathologist in issuing a stark warning about the dangers of binge drinking after a 19-year-old man, who wasn’t a regular user of alcohol, died after having cocktails, shots and beer with his friends.
State Pathologist Dr Margaret Bolster gave evidence in relation to the cause of death of the young man at an inquest in Cork city on Thursday.
The man, who is a native of Co Cork, died in the presence of his loved ones at Cork University Hospital (CUH) on September 16th, 2022.
The inquest heard that the man had gone to a sports club with a few male friends on September 12th, 2022. They all had two or three beers.
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The small group then went to a fast-food drive-through at about 11.30pm and ate chicken nuggets in the car park before going back to one of their homes. They had a few cocktails and did shots while playing the card came 21.
One friend gave evidence that “whoever went bust” in the game had to take a shot. The shots were of baby Guinness, whiskey and vodka apple sours.
When they noticed that one friend had become quite drunk after going bust a few times, they put him to bed on his side. Although they had no reason to think he was ill or in danger he was never left alone.
They rushed him to hospital by car the following morning when they realised he was having difficulty breathing.
Dr Bolster noted that the group of friends had said in evidence that the deceased was snoring heavily in the hours before his breathing became faint. However, he wasn’t vomiting and there was no sign of medical difficulties.
Dr Bolster said that snoring after drinking large amounts of alcohol was a typical sign of depression of the central nervous system. Dr Bolster said that the snoring was “indicative of [him] lapsing in to a coma”.
Dr Bolster said that she had recorded a blood-alcohol level of 275mg per litre in the young man at postmortem. However, as he had stopped drinking many hours before his condition significantly worsened she indicated that it was fair to conclude that it had probably been at a level of 300mg per litre at one point in the night.
“Over 300 mg causes very significant depression of the brainstem. The definition of binge drinking is over 80 mg [per litre].
“Binge drinking is five drinks in a male and four drinks in a female. There is a dangerous increasing pattern [of binge drinking] now. It [binge drinking] impacts on every organ in the body.”
Dr Bolster said that the body can process just one unit of alcohol per hour. She warned that that binge drinking can damage the white matter of the brain while also leading to death in certain cases.
She also said binge drinking can cause “holiday heart syndrome”. This is where people develop cardiac arrhythmia and die after a bout of heavy drinking.
Dr Bolster said there was no drug taking involved in the man’s death.
Coroner Philip Comyn told the inquest the family of the young man had shown huge generosity of spirit in making the “difficult decision” to donate his organs when he died at CUH in September of last year.
Mr Comyn said that the death was an “unfortunate tragedy” which happened when a few young people went on a “night out for a bit of fun”.
He commended the close-knit group of friends of the deceased “for doing everything they could” when they realised the teenager was in trouble.
Mr Comyn said that it was important to highlight the dangers of binge drinking.
“It [binge drinking] can lead to a tragedy such as this and it can do long-term damage to your health. We have the second-highest level of binge drinking in the world. Second to Australia. It is a pattern that seems to be increasing. It is something that people need to be aware of and the consequences of it.”
A verdict of misadventure was recorded in the case.
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