ER Stories

People are fascinated by Emergency Room stories. I often get asked to describe the grossest thing I’ve ever seen in the ER. Nothing grosses me out, so it’s a tough question to answer.

But I do see impossibly difficult cases on a regular basis. Here are my top three horror stories of the past week:

• 15 y/o boy was the unrestrained back seat passenger in a motor vehicle accident found with an altered mental status at the scene. No one was at the site of the accident with him – not one friend – because everyone was high. My kid was intubated and found to have a brain bleed. His urine drug screen was positive for Marijuana.

• 14 y/o boy addicted to xanax, with a long history of depression is brought home from a party by his friends who thought he was acting weird. Mom found him in the back seat of the car blue and unresponsive. She started CPR. He was brought in to the ER with a core temperature of 88 degrees but a heart rate was at least present. He was also intubated. His urine drug screen is positive for Heroin.

• 17 y/o boy was brought in to the ER by medics after a call at walmart by folks who saw him huffing a duster for your computer keyboard. This guy was luckily alert and oriented, but of course depressed and homeless. When the nurses saw him, they recognized him as the kid who was brought in for the same reason the night before.

Teenage drug abuse has hit epidemic proportions in the United States. And although I’ve listed three separate situations involving young men, I can assure you that this epidemic crosses both gender lines. It affects rich kids and poor kids alike – though more frequently in rich kids who can afford the drugs. It has invaded public schools and Christian schools alike. It is devastating and if you have a teenager living in your home, he or she is at risk.

I am not being an alarmist. I am simply reporting what I’ve seen and the stories I’ve heard, because for every sick kid on drugs that I see in the ER are another 10 minor drug users in the school system waiting to become a tragedy.

I used to ask kids if they smoked. The answer was always no. After all, cigarettes are out of style in the 21^st century. Then I’d check urine drug screens and find that these same kids were all positive for marijuana. I started to understand that kids didn’t consider marijuana a bad drug. It isn’t addictive, they would argue. Everyone is doing it, they would say. It’s not really smoking, the answer would consistently come.

How do you stop the teenage drug problem? How do you know if your kids are being honest with you when you ask them the tough questions? How do you keep them from self destructing?

Parenting seems hard on a good day. It seems impossible in our current day. The only tips I can give you are these:

• Ask the hard questions. Don’t shy away from it. Use the S word (sex). Use the D word (drugs). Whatever you do, ask the tough questions.

• Pray the old fashioned way. Get on your knees and pray. I’m not just talking to parents here, but to everyone. Our churches are full of kids who are walking that fine line of experimenting with the forbidden. There’s never a more urgent time to pray than now.

• Look through your kids stuff. Yes, I did say that. As long as your kid is living in your house, you have a responsibility to know what they are doing. You figure out how to do it, but don’t ever say you had no idea your kid had a couple of joints under her underwear stack.

• Monitor conversations. You’ve got to have open eyes, open ears and an open mouth. Watch the social venues for hints, ask questions, drop in unexpectedly at parties. Do your job. You may be unpopular with your kid for a few months, but they will thank you for it later.

• Get help. You may already be in a situation that is beyond your ability to deal with. Get help. It can be hard, it can be humiliating, but it can be helped.

Life is short. Do your best not to make it shorter for your kid. And if you’re a teenager reading this, know that we love you and are for you. Hope is right at your doorstep. The world is waiting for you.

Do you have any other helpful tips for parents of adolescents? Share them in the comments section.

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