Music

Chicago hospital runs "drunk drills" to prepare for Lollapalooza

by Jeremy Mersereau

Chicago’s annual celebration of alternative music and encroaching corporate colonization of every conceivable sphere, Lollapalooza, kicked off today. Alternative Nation: brought to you by Monster. 2016’s lineup includes Radiohead, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Jane’s Addiction… so, basically, the same generic, encased-in-carbonite Lollapalooza Lineup™ that’s been endlessly repeating ever since the inaugural fest in 1991.

One thing doctors and health workers in the Chicago area hope to stop repeating is the swathe of teen alcohol poisonings that follow the festival year after year. In 2015, nearly 100 teenagers were hospitalized for excessive drinking, with the festival weekend saw Chicago hospitals treating more intoxicated patients than the next three busiest weekends of the year combined.

At Lurie’s Children’s Hospital, staff are preparing for the potential influx of wasted teens by running ‘drunk drills’, with nurses going over established protocol while hospital interns simulate the usual behaviour of patients with sever alcohol poisoning: crying, vomiting, and dehydration. Not sure how you can effectively simulate dehydration, but there you go.

According to a hospital study, the majority of Lollapalooza hospitalizations involve female 16-to-18 year-olds from the suburbs, which should surprise exactly no one who’s ever grown up with or been a member of that demographic.

[H/T ABC]