First, I want to tell you about Alex, then I will talk about the prevention being done and what more we need to do.
Alex “Lexo” Young was a third year Architectural Engineering major at UW. He applied to schools all over the country but wanted to save money and stay in his hometown. We moved here when Alex was 8 years old. Alex was a very kind and loving person. Everything he did showed his compassion for other people.
At the University he had just begun playing soccer for the UW Club Soccer team. Their first game was September 7, 2013. At this game Alex received a concussion, this was Alex’s fourth lifetime concussion in an eight year period.
The week leading up to his death Alex saw the trainer on campus and a doctor at student health who both agreed he needed to sit out for a while. Alex struggled all week with lapses in time that he wasn’t sure what had happened and serious fatigue. On Friday night he hit his head again at work and told me he knew he wasn’t healed.
On Saturday, September 14, 2013 around 1:30 p.m. my husband and I both spoke to Alex. He was sober and headed to work at 3 p.m. By then, he was extremely intoxicated. He called my husband but didn’t realize he had called him and even after my husband said this is dad, Alex continued to call him by a friend’s name and was making no sense.
My husband felt like something was wrong and headed out to find Alex. He found Alex at the Hilton Garden Inn which was his place of work. Alex was intoxicated and making no sense. I must say at this point that we had witnessed our son intoxicated before because we had an open policy that if he ever needed us we would come and ask questions later, so in the past he had called for rides.
This time was very different. Alex was confused, angry and simply not himself. He kept confusing people for other people and was very upset and not making sense. My husband was with him until about 6:30 then Alex left with friends.
My husband came home at that point and said “I don’t know who that kid was but it wasn’t our Alex.” I am telling you all of this because he was not himself that day but none of us knew why.
We had no idea at this point that the combination of a concussion and alcohol could lead to impulsivity and delusions that lead to suicide.
Alex has seen a counselor before for life transition issues and his counselor has talked to us since his death and she said he never had any suicidal ideation or even risk factors. His friends said he was an emotional drunk but never saw this coming. I have worked on suicide prevention for the last six years of my career and I never saw this coming.
Alex had so many friends and family that he was close to that never saw this coming. He was surrounded by love and support his whole life! If there was suicidal risk he hid it well. This again leads me to the concussion.
There are many studies out there documenting the correlation between concussions and suicide. Had we known the risks we would have never left him for a second that day.
We were an extremely close family but not all kids have that and once they are in college their peers become their second family and they spend most of their time with their peers. This leads me to what we need to do.
Educate college age students about concussions, alcohol and the risk of suicide (parents and coaches would benefit also but at this age peers have more influence). Also they need to learn to take better care of each other.
From ages 18-24 you rely on your peers for most of your support, emotionally. Most of the time they all go out and expect that everyone will wake up the next morning. Sadly that is not the case. We hope to bring someone to Laramie to educate the community about concussions, alcohol and suicide (this is still in the works).
What we are doing; there is a coalition on campus called Lifesavers. Keith Evashevski is the facilitator of this coalition; he is part of the counseling center on campus. This is a campus/community coalition that works on suicide prevention. My agency is a part of this coalition and has helped provide training to the coalition and the community at large over the last two years.
It is a statewide goal of my agency to provide as much suicide training as possible across the state. We provide ASIST (Applied Suicide Intervention Skills Trainings) and QPR (Question, Persuade, Refer) on a regular basis to anyone in the community.
The foundation we are creating is based on kindness and taking care of one another, he spread kindness anywhere he went; that is his legacy. I will educate on suicide and concussions through my job because I hope to save other families this heartbreak, but I want him to be remembered for his kindness.
Tracy Young
Community Prevention Professional
Prevention Management Organization of Wyoming, Albany Office
