‘Debauchery’ Sends One to Hospital

A female Harvard undergraduate was rushed to the emergency room of Mount Auburn Hospital in an alcohol-related incident Saturday night, after attending the once-infamous Debauchery dance at Winthrop House.

The student was kept overnight at University Health Services (UHS) and released on Sunday.

“From my understanding, it was alcohol poisoning,” said Dr. David S. Rosenthal ’59, the director of UHS.

A second ambulance was also called for another partygoer but was not used. The second person, who does not attend Harvard, was not admitted to UHS.

The female undergraduate was taken by ambulance to the hospital at about 11:15 p.m., 15 minutes after arriving at the dance, according to the student co-chairs of “BauchCom,” the committee that organized Debauchery.

“There is very good suspicion that heavy ‘pre-gaming’ was involved in this incident,” the co-chairs—David S. Jewett ’08, Haibu Lo ’08, and Brad D. Oglevee ’08—wrote in an e-mail.

“It appears the student was intoxicated before arriving at the dance,” the master of Winthrop House, Stephen P. Rosen, wrote in an e-mail.

A Winthrop staff member who attended the dance said that anybody of legal age but obviously drunk “would have had a hard time” purchasing a drink from the Beverage Authorization Team serving alcohol at the party.

According to the BauchCom co-chairs, admission to the dance was controlled by sober students and tutors.

“No one was allowed in who appeared inebriated or who didn’t have a tattoo (which was the ticket) on them,” they wrote.

Rosenthal said “it’s possible” that a student could appear sober only 15 minutes before being sent to the hospital.

“But I think that it’s most likely that she would have had to have drunk a lot [before arriving],” he added.

“If that person had a fair amount before they showed up, it’s possible that it could be metabolized and they could become very intoxicated in a very short period of time,” said Ryan Travia, the Director of Alcohol and Substance Abuse Services.

The BauchCom co-chairs wrote that Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) officers followed a pre-organized response plan in calling for an ambulance after they felt the student required medical attention. HUPD officers attend all House-organized parties.

A spokesman for HUPD said the department does not comment on medical calls.

Admissions to UHS for alcohol poisoning are far from rare­—there have been five so far this month, and eight were admitted in January. But it is unusual for a student to be admitted straight out of an official event at one of the Houses, according to several officials.

Rosenthal said that in cases where intubation may be necessary, patients are taken to the Emergency Department at Mount Auburn Hospital before UHS.

Organizers of the event were confident that this was an exceptional incident, and that a revived Debauchery would become a College fixture.

“Other than this, there were no other reported incidents, alcohol-related or otherwise, at the dance,” the BauchCom chairs wrote. “We absolutely think this is a successful revival.”

—Staff writer John R. Macartney can be reached at jmacartn@fas.harvard.edu.