Vigil
remembers man's fatal drink LSU
student, 19, died one year ago
By DAMIANE RICKS
Advocate staff writer
Family and friends gathered on a median at the entrance of
Tigerland Sunday night to remember the 19-year-old LSU student who
drank himself to death one year ago in his Bob Petit Drive
apartment.
Chemical engineering sophomore Corey Domingue of Franklin died
of alcohol poisoning Oct. 10, 2003, one day after drinking a
bottle of rum he purchased from a neighborhood supermarket with a
fake Texas driver's license.
On the anniversary of his death, the group remembered Domingue
with a candlelight vigil, sharing memories of Domingue's life and
raising awareness of the consequences of binge-drinking.
Domingue's blood-alcohol level was .43, authorities said, more
than five times the .08 level that by state law presumes driving
while intoxicated.
Samantha Hope-Atkins, executive director of HopeNetworks.org,
said 1,400 college students between ages 18 and 24 die each year
from alcohol-related injuries.
"More kids will die this year from alcohol than in Iraq," she
said.
Since Sept. 5, five college students nationwide have died from
alcohol poisoning, according to news reports.
Four of the five students who died at Colorado State
University, the University of Colorado, Virginia Tech, the
University of Oklahoma and the University of Arkansas were under
the legal age to drink.
Colorado State University's Samantha Spady, 19, reportedly
consumed 40 beers or shots of vodka before she passed out at a
fraternity house and died. Her friends thought she would sleep it
off.
Similarly, Domingue got sick and fell asleep in the bathroom
around 12:30 a.m., police said. When he was found four hours
later, he had trouble breathing. He died the following day at Our
Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center.
Unconsciousness is one of the signs of alcohol poisoning, a
Louisiana Alliance Against Underage Drinking news release says.
Fatal doses of alcohol depress the body's nerves that control
involuntary functions, such as breathing and the gag reflex, which
prevents choking. When this happens, a victim of alcohol poisoning
can suffocate on their own vomit.
Other signs of alcohol poisoning include vomiting, slow or
irregular breathing, seizures and hypothermia.
Hope-Atkins said children whose parents are addicted to alcohol
are 80 percent more likely to become addicted to alcohol than
other people.
Tammy Domingue, the mother of Corey Domingue, said she and her
family have made efforts to change the culture that allows
underage people to have access to alcohol.
"I don't want anyone else in the world to experience the hurt
that my family is feeling," she said.
The Domingues attempted unsuccessfully to have the Legislature
pass a bill to create an alcohol crisis help line that underage
people could call for assistance.
Hope-Atkins said lobbying from the alcohol industry killed the
legislation.
"I can't give up," Tammy Domingue said. "I have two kids that
plan to come here to Baton Rouge and LSU," referring to her
daughters Cherine, 18, and Kirsten, 12. Another sibling is Micah,
11.
"The culture at LSU and in Tigerland is toxic," Hope-Atkins
said. "You could see all these places from where he lived,"
referring to the Tigerland bar scene.
Corey Domingue was at least the second LSU student to die of
alcohol poisoning in recent years. In August 1997, 20-year-old
Benjamin Wynne died while celebrating a fraternity bid. His
blood-alcohol level was .588.
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