Prom Night Turns Tragic for Young Woman, 18, Who took Ecstacy & Special K Mix

An 18 year-old with a 26 year-old fiance?? Are her parents dead?

Do you think her night was 'perfect'?

Cathy Isford, who had planned to become an elementary school teacher

Niiiiice...

..why didn't she go for the gusto and take ten hits of acid on top of it all? How about some coke?

Sheesh.

I mean, horse tranquilizer and X?

...and this girl was going to be a schoolteacher.

Now that she is officially brain dead, she can become head of the NEA.

Are her parents dead?

No, they only wish they were.

I can't say that I have much sympathy for people who play Russian Roulette.

alcohol will kill you, man

""I told her be careful, watch what you do. (But) you can't tell somebody her age what to do," she said. "

Yeah, you'll sleep well for the rest of your life off of that, Sis.

Next time, how about posting a source and a link.

http://www.ocregister.com/news/specialk00521cci4.shtml

'Perfect night' turns deadly
Foothill senior is on life support after taking a double dose of drugs to enhance her prom experience.

May 21, 2002

By JOHN McDONALD, MARIA SACCHETTI and RACHANEE SRISAVASDI The Orange County Register

SANTA ANA -- Cathy Isford was radiant as she got ready for the prom Saturday, showing off her strapless white gown, designer shoes and painted toes.

But the Foothill High School senior had a secret, sharing it with her older sister, Star. That night, Cathy, 18, planned to take a mix of "ecstasy," a powerful stimulant, and "Special K," or ketamine, a hallucinogen widely used as an animal tranquilizer.

"She wanted to make it a perfect night," according to Star Isford, 27, who said she tried to stop her sister from taking the drugs. "I told her be careful, watch what you do. (But) you can't tell somebody her age what to do."

Cathy Isford was taken to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana before dawn Sunday, just a few hours after the prom. She was in a coma. By Monday night, she had been declared brain dead. She will remain on life support for at least another day.

Police said Cathy became comatose after an apparent overdose brought on by a combination of ecstasy, ketamine and alcohol.

"Prom night is absolutely the scariest night of the year," said Mike Darnold, outreach coordinator for Positive Action Center, which works with teen-agers who have drug problems. Darnold also is a Capistrano Unified School District board member.

"Kids think that all the other kids have to take it (a drug) to be cool. I ask them, wouldn't it be nice to remember what you did?"

Cathy Isford attended the prom with her fiance, Rene Rojas, 26. She snapped pictures of her friends as they danced at Joe's Garage, an auto museum at the Tustin Auto Center, recalled her best friend, Sara Gulley, 18.

Then Cathy Isford and Rojas and Gulley and her boyfriend, Jeremy Thomas, 19, went to a hotel in Santa Ana for a small post-prom party.

Gulley thinks that Isford took the drugs en route to the hotel or once they arrived there.

"I begged her not to take it," Gulley said, adding that none of the others took drugs.

"At the hotel, she had a really bad headache about midnight. It got worse and worse," Gulley said.

Soon, Cathy wasn't moving, and Gulley was unable to find a pulse on her. The friends called for an ambulance. Gulley, Rojas and Thomas tried to administer CPR.

Later, family and friends were gathered at the hospital, trying to coax Cathy Isford back to life.

"Her mom was by her side, crying, 'Baby, come back to me,' " Star Isford said Monday. "My sister is fighting to come back. But she's worn out now."

The family wants the person who gave her the drugs prosecuted. They also want anybody who has a sample of the mix that Cathy took to bring it to the hospital so her physicians can examine it. Monday night, the family still held some hope that she might recover.

Star Isford said drugs were especially dangerous for her sister, who has asthma. She said Cathy experimented with ecstasy at 15 while attending rave parties, but stopped all drug use two years ago.

Cathy and Rojas were planning to wed in April 2003. Cathy wanted to be an elementary school teacher.

Friends and school officials described her as sweet and friendly. Last year, she was in a class that produced the school's video announcements, and last semester she served as an aide in the main office, said Principal Al Marzilli.

News of the episode filtered through school Monday. School officials arranged for counselors to speak with a handful of Cathy Isford's closest friends, Marzilli said.

This is the third tragedy to strike Foothill students this school year. Sean Lewis Wellins, 15, was found dead in November of apparent heart failure related to health problems. In February, 17-year-old Dean Shepherd was killed in a car accident.

Marzilli said the school has taken extra precautions over the years to educate students and their parents about the hazards of taking drugs.

At prom, for instance, Marzilli and other officials stood at the door to greet students. They inspected boys' jackets for drugs, and girls' purses were searched, he said.

In April, the school invited police to give a presentation to students and their parents about the risks of taking such drugs as ecstasy and Special K, concerned that use of the drugs was increasing, Marzilli said.

Sgt. Roger Neumeister of the Orange County Sheriff's Department said he has seen Special K in the field more and more in the past few years.

The drug is extremely accessible to youths because it's sold over the counter in Tijuana, he added.

"The kids say it's as easy to get as marijuana," he said. "Anyone with 100 bucks can get a pretty good high."

Marzilli says the school discourages teens from going off on their own after prom. If he learns about an unsupervised party, he said, he calls hotels and students' parents to warn them against it.

But he had only seen Cathy Isford at the prom, where she glowingly introduced him to her fiance.

"Our prayers are with her," he said. "You wish you could turn the clock back and give them a second chance and say, 'Go home.' "

Dr. Tareg Bey, an emergency physician and toxicologist at UCI Medical Center in Orange, said taking either ketamine or ecstasy alone doesn't usually result in a coma.

But Bey added that the chance of becoming comatose increases when a mix of such drugs is ingested.

"When people take odd drugs together, the effects are hardly predictable," Bey said. "Also, the people who sell the drugs may not be completely honest about what is in them."

Said Gulley, "To kids my age, I say it just isn't worth it. For two hours of fun, you have a lifetime of tears."

Excuse me.

My 15 year old daughter has a class mate that just OD' on Ecstacy and is presently in a coma. She had convulsions and apparently her boyfriend was afraid to call for help.

Modern-day Darwinism.

Only the smart survive....the morons take themselves out of the game.

THe young ones are all like that. My sister rented a room in her house to a "beloved 2nd grade teacher." Those are words from her obituary. She went out clubbing and drinking almost every night. Ended up a (literal) skeleton on a bahamian beach. I couldn't stand her because she put m sister in harms way more than once. What a loadie. Wish I'd gotten her fired, she'd probably still be alive.

(But) you can't tell somebody her age what to do."

ummm... Call the cops....Tell your parents....Contact the Principle at the prom site.....

what a waste, another "poster child" for drug use.

Dr. Tareg Bey, an emergency physician and toxicologist at UCI Medical Center in Orange, said taking either ketamine or ecstasy alone doesn't usually result in a coma.

The word usually would be enough for me but that's not enough for kids who have no sense of mortality. Damn shame. I'm sorry for her folks.

MDMA toxicity - http://www.ecstasy.org/info/leon.html

Yep. And the parents are pissed at the people who gave her the drugs. She actively sought them out, knowing she had health problems, and then turned herself into a vegetable. Maybe her parents should have paid a little more attention, but if they aren't going to see anything atrange about a 26 year old fiance, then they probably aren't going to complain about much else. Thankfully she won't be teaching any kids. You reap what you sow.