Comic Discussion > QUESTIONABLE CONTENT

WCDT: 2878-2882 (19-23 January 2015)

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A Duck:
Maybe Pintsize tried drinking with Faye, as he did before, as a subtle way of making her drink less. She drank WAY too much and that killed his chassis.

Smallest:

--- Quote from: Is it cold in here? on 22 Jan 2015, 20:51 ---Two bottles -- is this when you call 911? With or without the risk of choking?

I'd hate to hit someone with the medical expen$e$ of an emergency room visit if all that were needed was carrying them to a bed, but the opposite mistake would be incomparably worse.

Agreed about Pintsize. Turning off a citizen who has equal rights has got to be an issue.

--- End quote ---

I'm a couple pages behind on comments, so people probably have addressed this, but I think yes. Not just choking but alcohol poisoning, and it's also not as though he doesn't know she's depressed, whether or not he knows what degree it's to. QC hasn't called the police over mental health emergencies yet (they're all either settled with friends or okay to wait until therapy), so I don't know if or where Marten would draw the line for calling. That said, he doesn't know if it was only two bottles, and probably would assume it's more- I mean, Faye has been pretty wasted in the past, and he's seen her drunk many many times, but she's only passed out vomiting the one time in his lap, and I would argue that that was different (a different kind of passed out, more snoozy than unresponsive and floppy, plus he was there when it happened so he had an idea what happened).

Actually, definitely yes, but the rest of the reasoning was more on if Marten specifically would/would know he should.

Also, if Marten could, he could try to spare her the ambulance fees by getting someone (Hanners and Dale have cars and may be in the building) to drive her there, but moving her would be difficult.

ETA:

--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 22 Jan 2015, 21:16 ---Ya'll's is forgettin'. Marten's barely 26. Party days are not a distant memory. He's probably not really versed on the dangers of alcohol overdose. Passed out, puked, and breathing is a party foul at that age.
--- End quote ---

I'm 21 and this is standard understanding for most people I know (if anything, it's just people who are under age ('what if we get in trouble?') or older (40 or 50+, whatever age bracket my parents are in) adults ('it's just alcohol let them sleep it off') who regularly don't, other than the occasional dumb person. I know a couple people who have been to the ER for alcohol poisoning, most of which were taken by their similarly young friends, and I know more people who were helping facilitate (or just watching while someone else did) 911 calls and calls home and who would go to the hospital with them.

I still don't think Marten would necessarily call right away, but I don't think remembering partying would be why. If anything, I think it would be another reason he'd know to (and I just realized, that's sort of a plot point early on with Billy in Willis' DOA comic).

Omega Entity:

--- Quote from: Smallest on 23 Jan 2015, 12:12 ---That said, he doesn't know if it was only two bottles, and probably would assume it's more- I mean, Faye has been pretty wasted in the past, and he's seen her drunk many many times, but she's only passed out vomiting the one time in his lap, and I would argue that that was different (a different kind of passed out, more snoozy than unresponsive and floppy, plus he was there when it happened so he had an idea what happened).

--- End quote ---

Exactly this. I don't think that Jeph would have been so explicit with Faye's condition (he's never drawn -anyone- lying in their own vomit, that I recall, and there's been plenty of puking in the past), nor would he have made the leadup with Pintsize so dramatic, i.e. with him lying right by the door as Martin walks in, and him looking down when, presumably, his foot hit him. It's a very unusual place for Pintsize to be laying even if he were 'awake', which leads me to believe Faye probably chucked him at the door to cause his shutdown, and especially taking into consideration that Faye has been known to be violent sober, let alone drunk and angry. If she'd taken the time to shut him down, she'd have likely put him on a table. You're also forgetting that Pintsize is mobile, and I would think that he'd run like hell if he realized that she was going to try shutting him down.

To also title the comic 'Heavy Stuff', and then proceed to half-ass it and not treat it with the seriousness for which his leadup has set the stage, would be extremely poor storytelling and frankly, be rather irreverent with what is often an extremely serious topic.

Smallest:
Re: the general Pintsize worries: He's not going to be dead. It wouldn't make sense for his mind to be wiped (and as others said, backups exist). If his chassis is ruined, he works on the desktop (as seen when Marten cleaned his chassis), so that would work as an interim until they could afford a new one. Also, I'm pretty sure they still have his old chassis around- I believe it was mentioned when they were thinking of what to do with Momo's old chassis, but it might have been another time. There was a joke about skeletons in their closets.

I'm divided as to whether Faye hucked him at the wall, turned him off, or just let him drink. However, I am a fan of the 'Pintsize is going to help as Faye's companion now,' theory, especially seeing as unlike Marten, her friend count is dipping. I also like the idea of Steve helping, although Steve didn't ever seem to be at the 'call emergency services' point, other than that a brief stint to help sober him up might have helped.


--- Quote from: jheartney on 23 Jan 2015, 07:41 ---
--- Quote from: BenRG on 23 Jan 2015, 07:15 ---DOCTOR: "I have a Mr Marten Reed as Ms Whittaker's designated emergency contact...?"

--- End quote ---

Unless Faye has a legal directive authorizing Marten to do so, he can't make any medical decisions on Faye's behalf. Hospital will try to make contact with next of kin, so I hope Marten has their number. He wouldn't be a designated emergency contact unless Faye has woken up and made him such.  Assuming Faye's still out, they'll either be treating her in the ER or admitting her. If there's no insurance available, they'll be less likely to admit her. (Yes, I've been through family medical drama. It's grim.)

This all assumes that Marten is on the ball enough to realize he needs to call 911. The fact that he called Claire first is not a good sign. WRT all the speculation about how much she consumed/pills or blood in the vomit etc. this is all beside the point. She was passed out in her own vomit. That's enough to call in professionals and not play guessing games.

--- End quote ---
I'm still not sure whether he will call 911 (although since people here seem pretty heavily in agreement, I want to know what Jeph will do if he doesn't), but that aside- you can list whoever you please as an emergency contact. They don't have to have medical authority over you. They may be expected to call someone who does, or to know about your insurance, but they don't even have to do that. Your emergency contact is just the person they contact first, to know that you were injured (or however you were admitted). Since most people aren't comatose forever once they're in the hospital, your emergency contact is usually also someone to help you get home, since they don't like to just put patients out at the bus stop (usually- that sucked). They've been to the hospital more than once, it's not unlikely that they'd have asked for a contact upon admitting her the first time, and Faye reasoned that Marten lives with her, so if she needs help, he can get to her quickly and also can let her back in the apartment.

Before I was married, I didn't want the hospital phoning my legal next of kin unless I was dead (in which case, they wouldn't really be getting an emergency contact out of me anyway), and I'm not an extreme abuse case or anything, it was mainly a privacy issue. Seeing as Faye's next of kin live pretty far away, I think it's more than understandable that at least one of her emergency contacts (most forms ask for two) would be Marten.

(She might not have emergency contacts at all, even if she goes to the hospital, of course. If she does, I see Marten.)

Someone has replied so now you won't be double posting.
Yes!

ReindeerFlotilla:

--- Quote from: Emperor Norton on 23 Jan 2015, 10:57 ---
--- Quote from: ReindeerFlotilla on 23 Jan 2015, 10:23 ---
--- Quote from: Emperor Norton on 23 Jan 2015, 07:22 ---If one fifth of 80 proof liquor REALLY had a 50/50 kill chance, I, as well as a large number of my friends, have all had lottery winning levels of luck in not dying in our 20s. I think that there is something you might be missing in how those calculations are done.

(also, I'm sure Faye weighs more than 60kg, though I didn't in my hardest drinking partying days)

--- End quote ---

It's not a fifth, you're right. It's 535 millimeters. About 13 shots for a 75 kg person.

It's actually somewhat surprising that human beings survive anything, but in this case it generally takes some work to reach that level, and it does all have to be consumed faster than the liver can process it.

Around 13 shots per hour will give 50/50 odds of death for a 160-ish pound person. I'd guess Faye to be in the 140 to 160 range, so the fact that she's had more than a liter and a half, possibly more than 2 liters, is worthy of consideration.

Math is not that hard.

--- End quote ---

I've known plenty of people who have regularly downed 1-2 fifths in a single night. They got sick, woke up fine (though very hung over). This happened a LOT when I was in my early 20s. To myself and others I have known.

The problem with the math is that that is in ONE HOUR. I sincerely doubt she downed two bottles in an hour, and depending on how much it has taken in the past for her to get drunk, Marten might actually not find it as that much overkill. The biggest two warning signs that this is "big problem" rather than just Faye getting drunk the way she has most of the comic is that A. She was completely alone, and B. its the middle of the day.

She was fired at what looked like opening. He was just getting off work before preparing to go out on a date. I'd guess it was around 4-5 o'clock. My bet is that she had a good 6-7 hours of drinking in there before she passed out. Also, that one bottle looks like the one she had at CoD, which she started drinking when she first woke up.

Literally, if 13 shots killed people 50/50, there would be more than around 2,200 alcohol poisoning deaths a year in the US. You'd probably have that just on University campuses. I know from experience.

Also, the actions to take before calling 911: Check and see if they are breathing irregular, check to see if their pulse is low, check if breaths per minute is low, check if they have a pain response. If none of those things come up negative, you really just need to keep a REALLY close eye on them. If any of those come up as a warning sign, THEN call 911.

--- End quote ---

If Faye weren't drinking hard, given that she ought to have a drinker's liver, she wouldn't have puked. Seriously.

There's no doubt in my mind that Faye is going to be fine. But in the real world, when you find a hard drinker passed out in their own vomiting, it's time to start thinking about alcohol poisoning.

Most binge drinkers don't singlehandedly knock back 13 shots per hour without vomiting, even in college, just like most aren't going to consume a fifth without sharing. About 2,200 people die each year in the US from alcohol poisoning. The rate of hospitalization rate is around 30,000 and that excludes cases where drugs are also involved.

Oh, and those numbers are for 18 to 24 year olds only.

It turns out that people aren't dropping dead at the rates you expect because emergency medicine is a thing.

I've known hard drinkers myself. I've seen fifths taken down in a night. In fact. I once saw four men consume 5 fifths in one night. Over the course of about seven hours. Some woke more hung over than others, but none actually drank as hard as Faye has to have. Unless she got a stomach bug the same day she decided to go on a bender. So either the time between Faye's sacking and Marten's return is shorter than you think, or Faye drank a lot in short time at the end.

Odds are Faye didn't go home and begin a measured drinking, or guzzling bottles. She worked up to it.

So, again it's unknown how much she had, how fast and a BAC .3 could kill her.

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