PrimeTime: Deadly 21st Birthdays

Oct. 19, 2000 -- At midnight on his 21st birthday, Brad McCue, a Michigan State University junior, went with his friends to a local bar in East Lansing to celebrate.

Twenty-four shots later, he had beaten his friends' record of downing 23 shots, and his friends had scribbled the number 24 on his forehead to remind him the next morning of just how many drinks he'd had.

But Brad never woke up.

Cause of death: ethanol poisoning after consuming a large amount of alcoholic beverage within a short period of time.

Across the country, college students partake in this rite of passage some call "21 for 21," in which they drink their age in shots. According to some parents, college students and health professionals, such high-risk drinking, which one university official calls "celebratory drinking," is an epidemic.

A Cultural Expectation

"Celebratory drinking is a real problem," says Dennis Martell, of Michigan State's health center, "because some of these people never drank like that before."

Martell explains that the phenomenon is particularly dangerous because "it's the time when all rules are abandoned and you drink excessively with intense pressure or competition from peers."

"I really hadn't ever drank like this before," says Nick Meese, an Arizona State University student who was hospitalized after attempting to down 21 shots in one hour. "I felt like my insides were being ripped out of me. I had bleeding and the blood was in my vomit too … I felt so horrible on my birthday."

The problem is compounded, explains Martell, by a cultural expectation. "Most people just think they have to go through it," he says. "Whether it's prom or graduation or a 21st birthday, suddenly the rules change."

Encouraging Responsible Drinking

According to Dr. Dean Sienko, the medical examiner who watched Brad die of acute alcohol poisoning, excessive drinking "is the most serious public health problem that you face as a university community, as a community that works with young people."

So what is being done to address the potentially fatal problem of celebratory drinking, particularly on 21st birthdays?

To honor their son and give other potential victims a wakeup call, Brad's parents, John and Cindy McCue, started a program called Be Responsible About Drinking (B.R.A.D.). By sending birthday cards to students prior to their 21st birthday, they are able to share Brad's tragic story and encourage others to drink responsibly. The greeting also includes a wallet-size card on the signs and symptoms of alcohol poisoning, as well as how to seek help.

Twenty-eight other schools are now participating in the birthday card program, which the McCues began last spring. Martell says that the B.R.A.D. card has been effective: More than 75 percent of students report discussing the card on their 21st birthday, and 31 percent said they actually changed their behavior on their birthday as a direct result of the card.

After the death of David Thornton, a University of California at Davis student who died from alcohol poisoning after having 21 drinks on his 21st birthday in April, the university began a program modeled after the one established by the McCues.

Martell emphasizes that another method of prevention is to encourage friends — particularly men — to take care of one another.

Andy, a UC Davis student who was a friend of Thornton's, learned his lesson about being responsible for friends the hard way. "I don't want to lose another friend," he says. "It's so horrible a thing to go through. And so easy to avoid."