Three teens hospitalized for alcohol poisoning

By CHERY SABOL

The Daily Inter Lake

Three girls were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning at Kalispell Regional Medical Center during the weekend, and one of them spent 10 hours in the intensive-care unit after she was found unconscious in a home.

Flathead County Sheriff's Office detective and Alcohol Enforcement Team coordinator Travis Bruyer said an investigation began with a car accident Sunday on Montana 35. The driver lost control, and the vehicle landed in a ditch.

The driver was identified as a 15-year-old girl and so was her passenger. Montana Highway Patrol trooper Roger Dundis charged the driver with DUI and her passenger with underage alcohol possession. They were taken to the hospital.

Sgt. Lance Norman of the Sheriff's Office went to the home of the guardian who was in charge of one of the girls. Through an open front door, he saw what appeared to be a lifeless body inside.

Norman entered the home and found a 15-year-old girl lying face up and tangled in a phone cord. Her airway was obstructed by vomit, her skin was gray and her lips were purple, Bruyer said. She didn't respond to verbal or pain stimulus and was taken by Kalispell Fire Department ambulance to the hospital. Her blood-alcohol level was measured at .28 percent, more than three times the legal limit for an adult.

A Creston Quick Response Unit volunteer said, "If not for the efforts of Sgt. Lance Norman, the young girl would not have survived," according to Bruyer's report.

Charges are pending against a 31-year-old man who reportedly bought a bottle of Southern Comfort for the girls.

Eight minors have been hospitalized for alcohol poisoning since the Alcohol Enforcement Team began its work last year.

"What is it going to take for people to understand the seriousness of it?" Bruyer asked. "Do we have to lose a life?"

The team was formed to educate the valley about underage drinking and enforce laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol to minors.