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A senior at Penn State almost dies celebrating his birthday with 21 drinks
Friday, August 27, 1999 By Tom Gibb, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
STATE COLLEGE -- It's no surprise that Penn State University senior Kristine Lurowist left the local hospital so soon. It's just the rarest of miracles that she left alive.
But yesterday afternoon, Lurowist checked out of Centre Community Hospital and went home to suburban Philadelphia.
This was the young woman who, 2 1/2 days earlier, got a rush start on celebrating her 21st birthday by walking into a tavern about the stroke of midnight -- then partying her way through two bars and 21 shots, mostly hard liquor, in two hours. Minutes after the last drink, she crashed into a coma, her blood alcohol content of 0.682 was pretty much off the charts, the kind of number reserved for autopsy reports.
Binge drinking is a problem on most campuses. See story by the PG's Ann McFeatters.
In Pennsylvania, a person with a blood alcohol content of 0.10 or higher is considered legally intoxicated.
"I've never seen a blood alcohol level that high," Dr. Margaret Spear, Penn State health services director, said yesterday. "And I did some of my medical training in New York City 20 years ago, where we took care of people who drank tons of grain alcohol."
State College Police Sgt. Dana Leonard said he'd never seen those kinds of blood alcohol numbers -- never even talked to somebody who's seen them.
"She was very close to death," said Penn State spokeswoman Christy Rambeau.
By any account, Lurowist -- at 5 feet and about 120 pounds -- was nothing but the beneficiary of circumstance.
There was the State College bicycle police officer who just happened by, just happened to stop long enough to see the young woman drop into unconsciousness, surrounded by friends on a State College sidewalk. And there was the hospital -- experienced in the alcohol overdose cases Penn State's 41,000-student body regularly provides -- rushing Lurowist into dialysis that strained out the alcohol that was poisoning her nervous system into shutdown.
In Washington, D.C., yesterday, in a previously scheduled speech before the National Press Club, Penn State President Graham Spanier touched on the university's increasingly stiff approach to binge drinking and underage drinking. But as for Lurowist, he said, "Obviously, she and her friends didn't get the message."
"My roommate and I were talking, and we were shocked anyone could drink that much," said Carla Caivano, a senior from Castle Shannon.
But this was Lurowist's 21st birthday, the eve of the start of another school year, to boot. And a 21st birthday tradition here almost mandates binge drinking.
The rite of passage is called the "bar tour," a pub-jumping circuit through downtown State College. It starts at the click of midnight, the moment the student turns 21, and runs through closing time. An adjunct to the tradition is that partiers down 21 drinks of their choice.
"Bar tours have gone on in this town as long as I've been here, and I've been here 25 years," said Judy Shulman, owner of the Gingerbread Man, Lurowist's first stop. "After this, it's our policy: no bar tours allowed in here."
Police say Lurowist's first stop was the Acacia fraternity house, a few blocks down from her apartment building. Leonard says Lurowist may have had something to drink in a member's room -- a knotty legal question since she was there about 30 minutes shy of her 21st birthday. Acacia President Michael Schwarz said the fraternity house "is in no way involved."
From there, Lurowist and friends hit the Gingerbread Man, where Leonard said the bartender stuck by house rules, allowed her three drinks, then sent her on her way. After that, it was a block down the street to The Saloon. Leonard -- still trying to untangle specifics for possible criminal charges in the next two weeks -- said Lurowist did most of her drinking there.
The Saloon's operations director did not return calls for comment.
About 1:30 Tuesday morning, moments after Lurowist and friends left The Saloon, they encountered police bicycle officer Erich Kessinger. He watched Lurowist staggering, falling, then being picked up by her companions and carried, Leonard said.
There's a test State College Police use to gauge consciousness. They thrust their knuckles into a person's breastbone and rub. It's supposed to be annoying enough that a semiconscious person will rouse. Lurowist barely stirred, Leonard said.
Kessinger called for an ambulance. Lurowist was getting her slim chance to climb back from critical condition.
"Let's understand this. That girl wasn't very smart to do this. Her friends weren't very smart to do this," Shulman said. "I just hope to God that girl goes to that officer and thanks him."
Yesterday, Lurowist checked out of Centre Community Hospital, accompanied by relatives who were avoiding all questions.
"She's going home for a while," Rambeau said.
At Penn State -- which saw its last alcohol-related death near campus when a student stumbled on a State College sidewalk in February 1998 and suffered a fatal head injury -- the episode was news. But it was news competing for attention against the resumption of classes and the start of the football season.
"This girl could have been dead easily," Acacia president Schwarz said. "I think people are scared by that."
"It's a reminder to people," said student Senate President Christian Jones, a Peters resident. "It shows them if you don't stop, this can happen."
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