Hanna Lottritz, 21, Breaks Silence On Binge Drinking, Shares Photo Of Her Near Death

Hanna Lottrtiz is a beautiful and successful woman on the cusp of all things good – a wonderful career, good friends, and many promising attributes that make her life bound to be a success. However, the fresh-faced girl is talking about something that she has not had the courage to face until now. It’s about the night she drank so much alcohol she nearly lost her life, and she had never had any problems with alcohol with before, according to Glamour.

It’s taken her a long time to come to grips with the realities of that night, including things she will never remember, but she feels it is her duty to let other women know about the risks of binge drinking, which studies show continues to grow among young and middle-aged women.

On the evening she nearly died started so innocently, Hanna was attending a music festival with several friends. She had several beers, but that is not harmful to a grown female of average weight. She was feeling “buzzed and happy,” she said, when the last thing she remembers well is being with a group of friends who were playing a game to see who could drink the most. Wanting to have fun and participate, she quickly drank a glass of whiskey. That’s the last thing she remembers until two days later. Witnesses say she literally fell to the ground in a deep state of unconsciousness.

Quick thinking friends, buzzed but able to make decisions for her, rushed her to the emergency room in Reno, Nevada. She was near death upon arrival, Lottritz says.

“I was in critical condition, suffering from acute respiratory failure and acute alcohol intoxication. My blood alcohol concentration was.41 when I arrived at the hospital, five times over the legal limit. The doctors thought I was brain dead because I was completely unresponsive. My pupils were sluggishly reactive, I had no corneal reflex and I wasn’t responding to verbal or painful stimuli.”

Fearing she was brain-dead but hoping for the best, they intubated her and put her on a ventilator because she wasn’t breathing on her own. The liver can detoxify one drink an hour, but she was out for more than a day. Things weren’t looking good. This is the photo that she has chosen to share with the world about her situation at that time — simply desperate.

Against all predicted outcomes, Hanna awoke 24 hours later with her brain intact. The intensive care nurses were thrilled but disbelieving — they had been certain she would die.

“They told me that they didn’t think I would make it through the night. They asked me if I was trying to kill myself by drinking so much. This question hit me the hardest. From my hospital bed in the Intensive Care Unit, my eyes were opened to the seriousness of being irresponsible with alcohol. The next day when I was discharged from the hospital, I realized that the way I looked at alcohol would be changed forever.”

Six months later, it is easier for Hanna to face, and she credits her friends with her existence.

“I had good people around when all of this took place. I could have easily been taken advantage of when I passed out. I could’ve been left alone to ‘sleep it off.’ I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the phrase, ‘Let them sleep it off, they’ll be fine in the morning,’ but I’m alive today because my friends got me help. Don’t take a chance if you see a friend passed out from drinking too much. Get them help as soon as possible. I’m very lucky to have made a full recovery, but I know there are others who won’t be as lucky.”

[Image via Shutterstock]