The Children Are the Future

Took care of a teenager over the weekend who blew a .450 on the breathalyzer with minimal effort.  I'd surely be dead or at least intubated at that level, but this champ was not only maintaining his airway, but also managed to put together a coherent string of obscenities every time we touched him.

I wanted to take him down the hall for a glimpse into the future.  In another room, we had a jaundiced patient going through a terrible withdrawal.  Full-blown DTs, hallucinations, incontinent, ammonia levels sky-high from liver failure.  It's hard enough watching the destructive power of EtOH abuse ruin the lives of adults, but seeing kids head down the same path is terrible.