UPDATED: April 7, 2016 at 12:26 p.m.

Nearly one-­third of calls for help received by the Syracuse University Ambulance (SUA) are cases of intoxicated students.

It can rise to 40 percent on the weekends, ambulance workers said. First­-year students make up more than half of the calls, which are usually students seeking help for themselves or their intoxicated friends.

Andrew Brown, a field supervisor, said SUA has received calls of alcohol intoxication at least once every weekend since the start of the academic year. The cases usually occur between midnight and 3 a.m., he said.

Paola Louzado, who will become crew chief next fall, said she sometimes gets upset when ambulances pick up intoxicated students.

Mackenzie Moranz, a crew chief trainer, said she usually thinks of the worst-case scenario and how she would react to it. In especially serious cases, Moranz said SUA contacts other services in the area, such as Rural/ Metro Paramedics, which has access to life-saving tools such as heart monitors and intravenous fluids.

Moranz recalled one case when a student’s treatment proved particularly “tricky.” The person took a hard fall, involving possible head injuries. The crew carefully checked the student’s head and spine.

“You have to be cautious of all that, along with the alcohol,” Moranz said, “because the alcohol can hide the more serious injuries.”

Alec Massood, SUA personnel administrator who will become a dispatcher next fall, said proper diagnosis and treatment of intoxicated students must take into account whether the student is conscious. When the emergency medical technician (EMT) crew arrives at the scene, it checks the intoxicated person’s airways to make sure they are clear, which sometimes means using a suction tool to clear the mouth and throat of vomit.

Alex Archambault | Asst. Features Editor

Massood said many younger students do not seem to know what to expect from drinking so much.

Louzado said the most memorable alcohol-­related case she could recall involved a prospective SU student visiting the campus for an interview.

The evening before the interview, the high school senior went out drinking with two undergraduate friends and ended up getting intoxicated. By the time the EMT crew reached her, the girl was vomiting, Louzado said.  The crew had to call her parents to get their consent for her to stay in the hospital.

Fleet administrator Andy Ades said his biggest fear is that some people do not feel comfortable calling SUA.

“We ideally want to make sure you are OK,” he said. “We would rather you go to the hospital and be OK than be at home without any help and in a potential life threatening situation.”

Editor’s Note: Over the past month, The Daily Orange has collaborated with the Department of Newspaper and Online Journalism at Syracuse University on a series of stories relating to alcohol culture on the SU campus. Multiple stories will appear in The D.O. in the coming days.

Published on April 6, 2016 at 8:17 pm

Contact Yuqing: [email protected]