By Carrie James
As part of the middle school's constant efforts to educate its students about making good choices in life, Dutil detailed to students how bad choices can lead to much more than just a buzz or high.
"I'm a registered nurse, and I worked in the ER at a hospital in Maine," Dutil told the crowd of students who gathered in the school's gym to hear her speak. "I've see all kinds of things, and the reason I love my job is because I save lives. I'm here today, at your school, to save lives."
Soon after, Dutil jumps into her first stories about life as an emergency-room nurse at Maine General Medical Center. There was a 13-year-old girl Jessica, and she died after just three beers, she told the group.
"Now, I know you're saying you can't die from just three beers, how can you die from just drinking three beers?" Dutil said. It turns out, the girl hadn't felt well and passed out, then choked on her own vomit. "When she came in, she was coding. That code went on for what seemed like hours. And I had to be the nurse who had to hold her sobbing mother while the doctor told her that her daughter had died."
The hour-long presentation involved both stories about alcohol- and drug-related emergencies. Dutil even used students to simulate pumping a person's stomach, as if that someone had come in with a drug overdose. She also relates a couple stories about how just taking a drug can cause health problems even if you don't overdose.
"Street drugs are especially dangerous because you never know what's in them," she told the students. "I'll never forget the time Tory came into the E.R. I had just finished with a heart attack, and she comes in on a gurney yelling and screaming about spiders.
"As she went by, I realized she had all these red marks oozing all over her body. She had taken [a hallucinogenic] and thought she had spiders crawling all over her. She tried to gouge them out with her fingernails, and when that didn't work, she locked herself in the bathroom and took a disposable razor and tried to gouge them out with that."
It's stories like these that really motivate students to see the consequences of making bad choices, Dutil said after the presentation. They see that taking drugs or alcohol could have serious negative effects.
"You need to realize that you have the power to make good choices an no one can take that away from you," Dutil said.
Dutil came to the school after one of Woodland's health teachers learned about Dutil and her motivational speaking. Jill Feiman first saw Dutil at conference against student substance abuse at Adelphi University.
Later, Feiman wrote a grant and had asked Dutil to come speak at Woodland if she got the money. Unfortunately, Feiman didn't get the grant, but Dutil called earlier this year and said she could still come because Long Island beverage company Clare Rose was sponsoring her visit to two schools.
"We talk about making good choices all year in health class," Feiman said. "We teachers can talk until we're blue in the face about making good choices, but having her come here was a healthy situation where the kids can see what happens if they make bad choices. I really think that it might change some of their lives."
In some students, they did walk away with a better understanding of being responsible in making decisions that could affect their lives.
"She explained the consequences of doing drugs," said Shabria Green, an eighth-grader. "I thought it was helpful."
Another eighth-grader, Joe Nunez, who was pulled down to help in a demonstration said that while he was not stupid enough to ever try something like Ecstasy, he learned that even choosing to drink someday, he'll look at it more responsibly.
"I probably would be more responsible; I'll know my limit," he said. "It's something to keep in mind."
Words like these are good to hear, Dutil said, because it means young people are listening to her message and taking it to heart.
"I just feel like I am making a difference in people's lives," she said. "If I saved even one life to day, it was worth it. I just have a passion to help people."
