Pubdate: Wed, 20 Oct 2004
Source: Yorkton This Week (CN SN)
Copyright: 2004 Yorkton This Week
Contact:  http://www.yorktonthisweek.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2543
Author: Theresa Seraphim, YTW Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

PRESENTATION FOCUSES ON IMPAIRED DRIVING, DRUGS

Seventeen-year -old Curtis and his girlfriend left a party.

Fifteen minutes later, an ambulance was called to the scene of an
accident in which they were involved. Curtis' girlfriend was killed
instantly; he sustained multiple fractures.

This was one scene Norbert Georget of Saskatoon attended as a
paramedic.

Unfortunately, he told Sacred Heart High School students, such
incidents are all too common.

"I see a person die in front of me practically every day when I go to
work," Georget said, as part of his Smart Youth Power Assembly, which
focused on drinking and driving, and drug use.

Georget began doing the presentation on his days off, but is now
engaged in it full-time. Currently, he rides with paramedics in
various locations to find out what kinds of calls they attend and what
they experience through them.

Georget said he was glad Grade 9 students were part of the audience,
as they are not too young to become aware of the dangers.

'If I can influence them now before they get their licence, I will do
anything in my power," he stressed.

Georget brings the message home via video and slide show, with his
comments interspersed.

Those comments are taken from actual accident scenes Georget
worked.

He recalled how he felt at one scene where the victim was in a burning
car "screaming, yelling at you to get him out and all you've got is a
crowbar."

Georget backed up these comments with a clip from the TV show Third
Watch depicting a group of graduating teens drinking in a car before
it hits a pole and burns up.

"That's exactly how (that accident) happened," he told students.,
stressing real life is often not like television or movies, where the
person is pulled from the vehicle before it explodes into flames.

"Give me a break," Georget noted of such scenes.

"One of the worst things you can die from, is being
burned."

He has been at two scenes where he had to literally pick up body
parts.

"It's not fun," he noted.

Getting into a car with a drunk driver means "choosing this", said
Georget, pointing to a picture of a morgue.

And, he added, showing a picture of a crumpled car with the caption
120 to 0 in 3.1 seconds, "it doesn't take long to kill anybody."

That's why sober companions need to take keys from a drunk
driver.

"Get dirty if you have to," by hiding the keys, stuffing them into a
pants pocket, or doing whatever it takes to ensure the person doesn't
get behind the wheel. Anyone willing to get behind the wheel with an
intoxicated person should do three things, said Georget.

"Put the porch light on," to make it easier for officers to get to the
house to notify parents, he noted.

Then, "fill out your (organ) donor's card" and "kiss your Mom or Dad,"
Georget said.

In Canada, police notification of parents that their child has died in
an accident occurs, on average, once every five hours, said Georget.
In Saskatchewan, it's once every six days.

People drink because it's considered "cool" or they like the taste,
but there's nothing palatable about someone passing out from alcohol,
noted Georget.

Rather than engaging in hilarity, which is the usual reaction, the
person's compatriots should turn them on their side, so they won't
choke if they vomit.

"If you're not sure about their breathing, get them to the hospital.
It's not a laughing matter," Georget stressed.

Street drugs can be just as, if not more, insidious, he said, adding
an addict's experience usually follows one of several paths.

"One, they go to jail. Two, they get sick. Or three, they
die."

Georget played several clips from the film "Requiem For A Dream",
which depicts all these situations through the lives of several drug
addicts as they descend into junkie hell.

One has the arm he uses for shooting drugs amputated due to gangrene,
while the other two literally curl up and die - which, said Georget,
is common among addicts.

"That's how we tend to find them," in the fetal position, he
said.

"I've seen many people like that."

Some students scoff during Georget's presentation. One, who threw
paper airplanes at him, died in an accident three weeks later.

He was one of nine Georget has heard about so far, among all the
students who have seen the presentation.

"I just cringe opening the paper or reading an email," said Georget,
adding the record for fastest death is five hours after his
presentation.

"I couldn't believe it."

Unfolding a body bag, Georget told students they are only used
once.

"This one was used," he said, to gasps from the audience.

"I placed one of my students (as Georget calls those to whom he has
given his presentation) in this body bag."

When asked why he does the presentations, Georget has one simple
answer.

"I believe in what I'm talking about."
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MAP posted-by: Derek