Fateful night
Before going to Club Prana on June 30, 2006, Sarah took some Xanax pills. She and Julia drank vodka and danced throughout the night, then reportedly Sarah took more Xanax. When they left the club at 3 a.m., Julia was reportedly so drunk, she urinated on the ground in the parking garage. Still she got behind the wheel of her car to drive home. On the way she blew a tire, lost control of her Volkswagen Cabrio, and hit a concrete median. Three sheriff’s deputies arrived soon after and noticed Julia and Sarah were wasted. But instead of giving Julia a Breathalyzer test, they let Sarah call Nick, and he drove over to get them.

By the time Sarah, Julia, and Nick arrived at Julia’s apartment at around 6:15 a.m., Sarah was unconscious and barely breathing. Nick carried her upstairs and into the apartment and put her on a bed. Then Julia’s roommate, Andi Meade, 21, who had worked until almost 4 a.m. and was still awake, saw Sarah and immediately got worried. “You should take her to a hospital. She’s got alcohol poisoning,” Andi said. “No,” Julia insisted, “she’s all right.” So Andi went to bed. Later on Nick and Julia smoked a joint, and they stayed awake to make sure Sarah was okay. She awoke around 10:30 a.m., went to the bathroom, and asked for a glass of water. Then Julia fell asleep next to Sarah in bed, and Nick crashed on a futon in the living room.

When Julia woke up around 9 p.m., she started screaming: Sarah was unconscious, and vomit was coming out of her mouth. Julia called 911. “Um, the girl is not breathing,” she told the dispatcher, as Nick performed CPR on Sarah. Ten minutes later the paramedics arrived and rushed Sarah to a nearby hospital, where nurses cut off her clothes and pumped epinephrine into her 95-pound body to try to revive her. But their attempts to save her failed. At 10:38 p.m. a doctor pronounced Sarah dead.

Lasting pain
As word spread about Sarah’s death, many of her friends blamed Nick. “You’re a piece of s***,” one of them wrote on his MySpace page. But Nick defended himself. “I can still taste her vomit on my lips,” he wrote on his own MySpace page. “Trust me, no one is more hurt by it then [sic] me.”

A few weeks later the medical examiner—who found two prescription drugs (OxyContin and Xanax), a cough-syrup derivative, and other drugs in Sarah’s system—ruled her death an accidental overdose. Today, Ms. Rinaldi wants to prevent other drug-related tragedies. She started the Pink Star Foundation (myspace.com/pinkstarfoundation; pink was Sarah’s favorite color) to raise money to send teens to drug rehab. “What happened to Sarah is every parent’s worst nightmare,” she says. “Now there’s an empty place inside me that will never be filled.”

GET HELP

If you’re misusing prescription drugs, here’s what to do:

• Visit abovetheinfluence.com for the scary truth about these drugs as well as info on how to resist peer pressure.

• Talk to your parents or to a trusted adult who can help you.

• Find a treatment center. Go to prescription-drug-abuse.org.

Seventeen magazine is partnered with the Office of National Drug Control and Policy, which just yesterday released new official White House report about the teen prescription drug abuse epidemic.  Visit seventeen.com for more information.

Julie Rinaldi has started the Pink Star Foundation (myspace.com/pinkstarfoundation) to raise awareness about what happened to her daughter. Donations can be mailed to:

PMB 147
1221 Bruce B. Downs Blvd.
Wesley Chapel, Fl 33543

For more information on the Pathways Family Center recovery program click here.

MORE FROM HEALTH

Health Section Front

Fed up as 'fat mom,' she lost 127 pounds Fat to fit: Joy Fit Club transformations Discover the secret of slow David Duchovny not alone in sex addiction Food for thought: Thinking makes us pig out Kids bored with breakfast? Get creative Vitamins, family style: What to take when Wise answers to old wives' tales Experts: ‘Cheating gene’ not a predictor Leading geneticist to pen book on disease Health Section Front   Add Health headlines to your news reader: