Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle) posted this on his character twitter on Halloween: Serious note. Take care of your teenagers so they can become seniors... like Mother. http://www.shelbysrules.com/

I checked out the website, and came across a tragic story, about a teenage girl who died from alcohol poisoning. Here is what I found.

On December 20th 2008 17 year old Shelby Lyn Allen died at a friend's home of alcohol poisoning. You would have liked her, she was fun, lively, silly and wise beyond her years, but what she didn't know killed her. She and her friends were ignorant of the fact that approximately 8 ounces of hard liquor (the size of a small juice glass) consumed in under 2 hours can be lethal. It may sound unfair but girls are even more susceptible to this type of death, due to their monthly fluctuations of hormones and body fat content.

On the first night of Christmas vacation, Shelbz and her friends were apparently playing a drinking game... everyone lost. The greatest tragedy of all was that this was a completely preventable death. Shelbz was texting most of the evening so many of her friends were aware that she was throwing up, if one of them had called for help the evening might have ended differently. Shelbz motto was "Dig Life" and in that spirit we, her family invite you to be a hero, here is how you can save the lives of those you love and maybe even those you don't know, get the word out - Drinking + Vomiting= Call 911


I just wanted to post this, because things like this happen way too often, and they are completely preventable.

I had to be rushed to the hospital once while I was in college. I was consuming too much alcohol during a short space of time. I passed out completely, my finger nails were blue, so finally my roommates, (who were drunk themselves,) had just enough sense to call an ambulance. The nurse gave me charcoal to drink in order to flush out all the toxins. Charcoal is NASTY.

drinking + vomiting = paramedics telling you to get a grip

Very true.

It should be drinking + unconcious --> call 911 (or 999 in our case)

Paramedics have better things to be doing than getting called out to see everyone who has vomited after drinking too much. There's a difference between being very drunk, and alcohol poisoning.

I agree, but I didn't want to alter the page when I posted it.

My uncle had alcohol poisoning when he was about 17. He was trying to match my dad and his friends drink for drink, despite being 8 years younger. He had a fit (no vomiting) and so someone phoned for an ambulance but my mom says they had to phone a few times before they'd come as they told them it was at a party. Pretty ridiculous since he was having a damn fit!

Even though it hasn't happened to me in a long time, I always throw up whenever I have too much to drink. I also know people who never get sick; they just pass out and wake up the next morning with the hangover from hell. I don't know what determines your tendency to throw up, but if I had called 911 every time I got sick, I'm sure the paramedics would have stopped coming over and I'd be suffering from "boy who cried wolf" syndrome.

I very rarely throw up when I've been drinking, but if I do it's usually caused by wine. My friends call me 'the stomach of steel' ;D

Wow, I didn't know that 8 oz of liquor could cause alcohol poisoning. In that case, I have been VERY lucky many many times. ;D

Well, it's 8 oz consumed in under 2 hours, which can make a difference I think.

I have consumed a lot more than 8 oz in just one hour. :P But I have been told I can out drink most grown men so maybe I just have a high tolerance of alcohol.

It depends on your tolerance. She had perhaps never drank before, or not much, so her tolerance could have been very low. The more you drink the higher your tolerance gets.

But see that's the thing, I had never drank before then & I felt fine. I mean I felt drunk, but not sick. Even now, when I drink once in a blue moon I can drink a lot & never get sick. It takes a lot more for me to get drunk than most grown men. I know they say your weight has something to do with how much alcohol you can handle also, but I weigh only 125 lbs. I have read somewhere that there is a chromosome abnormality that a man can give his child when they are conceived if he is an alcoholic. Similar to fetal alcohol syndrome, but it is carried through the male's sperm. I wonder if there is also a genetic link to alcohol tolerance as well.

He is an article similar to what I'm talking about if you are interested.
http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Dad's+hidden+influence:+a+father's+legacy+to+a+child's+health+may...-a0177673794

Also, don't want to get this on an entirely different topic, but my father is an alcoholic. I have oftened wondered if there is a genetic link that makes someone more likely to be able to drink excessively. I'm not an alcoholic by no means. I have drank alcohol just twice this entire year. But when I do drink, I drink gawd awful amounts.

I've always wondered that too. My father is an alcoholic, his father is an alcoholic, and it goes on and on (I have a family of moonshiners). Back when I USED to drink (which was, I'm gonna say, 4ish years ago) I could out-drink guys by drinking more shots than them. Not that, that is something I'm particularly PROUD of, lol, but I have always wondered the same thing.

My family were moonshiners too. ;D I guess that's what we get coming from the deep south. I tried moonshine for the first time when I was 12. Me & my friend both got into my dad's. My friend threw up all over the bathroom floor and I was still lucid enough to pick her up, give her a shower, clean up the throw up in the floor, & hid the bottle before my parents got home.

*lmao* My mom makes moonshine (she's not an alcoholic, we end up using our moonshine almost solely for cooking and we don't get drunk from that! XD) and she learned how to in Taiwan. 30 years after moving to the US, she still makes it. It's 1 of the things I'm going to make her teach me to make. Even though I'm in the deep south now... not only Southerners believe in the power of moonshine! XD

I do believe there is a genetic link. Several candidate genes have been identified, which means that there is not one sole gene responsible. Of course, genetics alone is the never the only cause; your upbringing, home environment, work/school environment, the people you associate with, life stresses/events, and so on also play a large role.

The littlest amount of alcohol makes me extremely sick.
And I'm talking like, maybe a thimble full of vodka (and mixed in with a cup full of juice no less!), and I'm nauseous.
Not to mention how sick I am the next day as it passes through.
It's pretty ridiculous, tbh. It's also why I never drink. I don't even want to THINK about how sick I'll get if I drink more D:

This topic makes me want to get a beer.

LOL

the problem is teenagers, and unfortunately a lot of young adults, don't know their limit with alcohol. they usually throw up, or pass out way over their limit. i have only thrown up once, and it wasn't because i was too drunk, it was because i decided to have a cigarette and i don't smoke. lol.

still, you should only really drink until you feel a buzz, then stop drinking. once the buzz starts to wane, then drink a bit more. but kids these days drink a ridiculous amount and don't pace themselves, so they end up dying of alcohol poisoning, or being the really annoying asshole that pukes on all your furniture and/or in the taxi you take home.

Exactly. They don't pace themselves.. they drink a shitton of alcohol at once and by the time they start to feel it, it's too late and they're way too gone.

yeah exactly. they think an entire bottle of vodka to themselves is enough to get them wasted. well it will, but you'll probably die. i've always paced myself with alcohol. i usually only have anything from 4.5% - 5.2% bottled drinks because that's around about one "standard" drinks here.