Newport Nurse Raises Alcohol Awareness at SRU

By: Colleen O’Toole
Posted In: News

In a powerful presentation on alcohol and its effects, an audience composed primarily of Salve Regina freshmen was moved by the personal story that the speaker gave last Wednesday in Bazarsky Lecture Hall.

Linda Chaves, an emergency room trauma nurse at Newport Hospital, delivered the presentation titled “Alcohol Awareness: Effects of Drinking and Driving.” Chaves works third shift, 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. at the hospital, and treats many people who come in under the influence of alcohol.

“Is it worth a couple of drinks?” Chaves asked as she showed pictures of crashes and people involved in crashes caused by alcohol.

After showing pictures of different crashes caused by drunk drivers, Chaves showed a picture of a teenager, paused for a few moments, and told the audience that it was a picture of her son, Charlie, who died in a drunken driving crash in 2001. He was in his first year of college at Plymouth State. Once she said this, no one in the audience moved or said anything.

“I want it to be real to them,” said Chaves, who showed pictures the police had taken and pictures she took when she went to the scene of the crash. In those pictures, the audience could see stains of blood and brain on the seats of the car. Since the back of the car was crushed, the air bags did not go off. Had Charlie been wearing his seatbelt, Chaves said, he would have walked away from the accident like his friend, who was in the passenger seat with a seatbelt on.

Chaves receives the same reaction– silence and tears– every time she speaks. She wants the audience to make the right decisions. “His one decision was his last,” Chaves said.

The majority of the audience at the 7 p.m. presentation was students because it was required for some New Student Seminar classes.

Freshman, Matthew C. Miller, attended the presentation, but said he would have gone whether or not it was required. “(It) can happen to anyone,” Miller said. Everyone is affected one way or another, he said. “It will make people aware.”

Chaves has given this presentation more than 400 times in the 4 1/2 years to colleges and universities all over New England, as well as in Texas, Florida, North Carolina, Arkansas and Arizona. She visits high schools as well as religious and C.C.D. groups and driver’s ed classes. This presentation is a national program, presented by Emergency Nurses Association-C.A.R.E. Program, and all the presenters include the story of Charlie Chaves in it, although his story would not have the same effect as coming from his mother.

Throughout the presentation, Chaves included stories of people being affected by alcohol who ended up in the emergency room for drinking too much. She also discussed the symptoms of an alcohol overdose. One of the main facts that Chaves wanted the audience to take away with them most was that a person should be taking 12-20 breaths per minute, and if someone is breathing 10 breaths or less, then 911 needs to be called immediately. Once someone hits 10 or less breaths, he/she will only decrease from there.

Chaves also noted that 137 people are killed everyday in car crashes, which is about five people per hour; approximately 42,000 deaths per year. Of the 42,000 deaths, 19,080 deaths are caused by alcohol, and the numbers are rising every year. When people consume alcohol, their peripheral vision is gone, causing them not to see if someone is coming up beside them in a car.

Another fact Chaves discussed was that kidneys can only filter 1 oz. of alcohol per hour, so people get more and more drunk, and the rumor that giving someone coffee or a shower to sober them up is not true; the only thing to sober someone up is sleep and time, Chaves said.

Various programs are available to inform the youth, as well as adults, on alcohol. Chaves mentioned Decide to Stay Alive, which is geared toward high school seniors, and presents a speech every six weeks on a different topic that the youth get into trouble with.

The Director of Prevention and Outreach at Caritas, Inc., Ray D. Davis attended the presentation. Caritas, Inc. cares for substance abusers and their families, as well as prevention programs. Also at the presentation was Newport Police Officer Kevin Parsonage, who said that the D.A.R.E. Program starts in the fifth grade.