{"id":346299,"date":"2022-04-01T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/?p=346299"},"modified":"2022-04-20T13:43:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T17:43:46","slug":"er-doctor-louis-profeta-cautions-pace-students-about-the-dangers-of-alcohol","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/2022\/04\/01\/er-doctor-louis-profeta-cautions-pace-students-about-the-dangers-of-alcohol\/","title":{"rendered":"ER Doctor Louis Profeta Cautions Pace Students About the Dangers of Alcohol"},"content":{"rendered":"

Emergency Room doctor and author Louis Profeta spoke to the Upper School on Feb. 11 about the dangers and consequences of substance use. Dr. Profeta has cared for over one hundred thousand patients, written countless opinion articles, and published a book titled \u201cThe Patient in Room Nine Says He is God.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

He began his presentation by commending the Pace community for being courageous enough to listen to the harsh and often frightening topics that he touches on. After touching on a few of his most famous articles and their headlines, he launched into a story about a time he spoke to his son\u2019s college fraternity. One of the members of the fraternity asked him the ever-popular question for ER doctors, \u201cWhat is the worst thing you have ever seen?\u201d \u201cThe worst thing I have ever seen is the look on your mom\u2019s and dad\u2019s faces when I tell them you are dead,\u201d answered Dr. Profeta. <\/span><\/p>\n

He followed this haunting statement by debunking the rumors spread by movies of what the exchange between the doctor and the deceased patient\u2019s family looks like. \u201cIt is not like that,\u201d said Dr. Profeta. \u201cIt goes something more like this: NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NOT MY SON, NOT MY SON, MY LITTLE GIRL. GO BACK. CHECK AGAIN.\u201d Dr. Profeta let the room sit silently for a moment before he asked the audience a question. \u201cDo you have any f****** idea how selfish that is of you,\u201d he asked. Dr. Profeta then steered his message to be about what love really is. \u201cTake the darkest, deepest most unimaginable grief that you can imagine and that is where you will find it, he said. \u201cThat is in the death of your own child.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Profeta began his advice portion of his presentation by urging students to develop a sense of \u201cpersonal responsibility to self.\u201d \u201cEvery problem you have right now will get better or just become a different one,\u201d he said. \u201cBut drugs and alcohol are not the way you can cope and create resiliency.\u201d He urged students to communicate with their parents if they are experiencing any type of mental or social issues.<\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Profeta then switched to a new topic: drug overdoses. \u201cYou guys just have no idea how these drugs kill you,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have this idealistic vision of an overdose being someone snorting 10 lines of coke or someone injecting heroin, but you can die with just one pill.\u201d He followed this haunting mental image with a real one. Dr. Profeta places various foods and drinks into a pitcher and then proceeded to mash them together with his fist, creating a substance eerily similar to throw up. He then poured the substance into a tracheal tube to illustrate how one suffocates when under the influence and throwing up. <\/span><\/p>\n

He then described the effects of sedatives such as alcohol and other drugs on the respiratory system. After explaining how a lack of oxygen can cause an individual to go into cardiac arrest, Dr. Profeta walked the audience through what he does when they show up to the ER. \u201cI know you are dead when you show up,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I am going to let my med students do CPR on you for about 15 minutes or so.\u201d After pronouncing the patient dead, Dr. Profeta said that he thinks about what they might have done that day, for no young person wakes up and says \u201cI am going to die today.\u201d \u201cI\u2019ll go through your Instagram account or your Tik To before I go in and tell your mother you are dead,\u201d said Dr. Profeta. \u201cIt gives me a chance to get to know you a little bit.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

To prevent all of the haunting events that he describes, Dr. Profeta urged students to \u201cembrace a culture where you step in.\u201d \u201cThat is not only calling for an ambulance,\u201d he said. \u201cThat is reaching out to parents of friends who are engaging in dangerous behavior.\u201d Calling for help is not all that he asks of students. \u201cYou have to develop a respect for alcohol, and that includes things like drinking games,\u201d said Dr. Profeta. <\/span><\/p>\n

He then transitioned from alcohol use to the consumption of cannabis. \u201cIt does not open a lot of doors for you right now,\u201d said Dr. Profeta. \u201cYour brains are developing, and there are some studies that show it probably has neurocognitive effects on your brains at this age.\u201d He then advised students that if they are going to use weed, to be careful how they consume it. \u201cStay away from the edibles,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are now seeing edibles laced with fentanyl.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Dr. Profeta finished his presentation by cautioning students on how substance use can make them vulnerable to sexual crimes or impair their own decision processes. \u201cProtect the individual you first and foremost,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Emergency Room doctor and author Louis Profeta spoke to the Upper School on Feb. 11 about the dangers and consequences of substance use. Dr. Profeta has cared for over one hundred thousand patients, written countless opinion articles, and published a book titled \u201cThe Patient in Room Nine Says He isContinue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":441,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["entry","author-","post-346299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-pacenews"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1TYqQ-1s5t","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/441"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=346299"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":346894,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/346299\/revisions\/346894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=346299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=346299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/knightlife.paceacademy.org\/knightlynews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=346299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}