Petaluma case casts spotlight on dangers of teen drinking

The near-death of a 15-year-old Petaluma boy this month has again underscored the dangers of underage drinking, while at the same time highlighting the age-old reality that many teens drink alcohol, often to excess.

The difference between now and 10 or 20 years ago, one local expert said, is that more teens today are choosing hard alcohol and are more frequently drinking potentially deadly amounts.

"There's not a week that goes by that we're not seeing an underage drinker in our emergency room," said Wendi Thomas, the emergency room nurse manager at Petaluma Valley Hospital.

The latest was a 15-year-old youth who was brought by ambulance to the hospital on Sept. 16 after police found him unconscious and barely breathing inside a west Petaluma home.

Neighbors called police saying they saw one youth being carried into a home by several others. Three others, including a 14-year-old junior high school boy, were arrested for being drunk in public, a misdemeanor, police Lt. Tim Lyons said.

The 15-year-old, whose name wasn't released, has since been released from the hospital after spending time in the intensive care unit. Police said the boy's blood-alcohol level was 0.4 percent, five times an adult's legal limit for driving.

Had the boy not been treated quickly, he could have died, Lyons said.

Thomas said her emergency room has seen about three-dozen cases of teen alcohol intoxication in the past 18 months, excluding the recent case. Their levels of intoxication have ranged from 0.08 to 0.38, she said.

Police said the boy was trying to "catch up" to his friends, who had already been drinking rum by the time he joined them.

Police are working to determine where the teens got the alcohol. It appears, Lyons said, that they didn't buy it or steal it from a liquor store, or have an adult buy it for them.

The most likely scenario, he said, was that the youths retrieved it from someone's home. There were no parents at home when police arrived at the B Street house about 5 p.m. that Friday although investigators believe the youths began drinking elsewhere.

Binge drinking — defined as having five or more drinks within a few hours — as the 15-year-old apparently did is becoming more common, health care experts said.

"The trend we're seeing is heavy on binge drinking and heavy on hard alcohol," Thomas said. "They don't drink a beer. They drink a (water bottle) filled with vodka."

She said teens also generally aren't drinking wine. They often try to hide their drinking — or disguise the taste of the alcohol — by mixing it with a sports energy drink.

The Petaluma case is similar to a deadly teen-drinking episode in July in Santa Rosa.

It remains unclear exactly what killed 14-year-old Takeimi Rao. Sonoma County sheriff coroner's officials still are waiting for definitive toxicology reports.

Rao and three friends drank vodka mixed with soda during a sleepover at her house. All four girls became sick and threw up during the night, but didn't admit they'd been drinking, instead blaming it on food poisoning.

Rao was found dead in the morning. She'd thrown up in her bed and sheriff's officials initially said she could have choked to death on her vomit.

But the autopsy after the July 10 death didn't indicate a fatal choking incident and investigators could make no conclusive cause of death.

Investigators then awaited toxicology results, which include alcohol levels and other tests, for a possible answer.

But those tests, which came back in mid August, were inconclusive and the county pathologist still couldn't rule on a definitive cause of death.

The samples were sent out for further testing against a longer list of possibilities, said Lt. Dennis O'Leary.

O'Leary on Tuesday said those tests haven't been returned. Sheriff's officials had anticipated a four- to six-week time period for the test results.

Incidents like Rao's death and the Sept. 16 event in Petaluma are often used in teaching situations to highlight the dangers of teen drinking.

The Petaluma Coalition to Prevent Alcohol, Tobacco and other Drug Problems uses health care officials, community groups, the schools, police and community members to educate teachers, parents and teens.

Using a $125,000 federal grant, the group makes presentations in Petaluma schools using data to raise awareness of the health and legal consequences of underage drinking.

"The goal really is to touch some of them and allow them to have some open conversations with their parents and each other," Thomas said.

In Petaluma schools, 4 percent of seventh graders have had one full alcoholic drink four or more times in their lives, according to the California Health Kids Survey from 2009-2010.