DOCTOR GIVES KIDS GRAPHIC DETAILS OF HEROIN'S RISKS

Larry Alexander knew he'd hit on an effective way to get his anti-heroin
message across to a crowd of restless high school students when six of them
ran from the room to vomit and a seventh fainted.

People who overdose on heroin usually die because they drown in vomit, he
told them.

"Your brain is still thinking, but you're so groggy, you're not able to
talk," he said.

And because the drug makes users seek solitude, "nobody saw you vomit. Then
you feel your heart beating hard and fast and then your heart stops. You're
dead, and nobody knows."

The room was silent for about 30 seconds.

"Kids need to understand that it's not a glamorous thing," said Dr.
Alexander, an emergency room physician who, during his tenure at Medical
Center of Plano, treated several teens who died from heroin overdoses. "If
we're going to get to these kids, we've got to punch them in the gut."

His track record is consistent: By the end of almost every one of his
talks, at least one person has scurried away. After one lecture, he was
approached by a Richardson undercover police officer who said, "Oh, you're
the vomit doctor."

For the last seven months, Dr. Alexander, 37, has spent most of his free
time educating area students about heroin at dozens of talks in Collin
County and beyond. His knack for public speaking, passion to help and his
ability to connect with teenagers have turned him into something of a
celebrity. At any area event where heroin is the topic, Dr. Alexander
almost always finds a way to be there.

Those who don't know him by name are likely to recognize his face. TV news
reports, talk shows and programs dedicated to the issue of heroin are
almost certain to feature Dr. Alexander.

So far, he has figured prominently in an MTV program and appeared on The
Montel Williams Show, Dateline NBC, Hard Copy, Inside Edition and others.
He is scheduled to appear at least once this month on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

Although he left the Plano hospital in March to work in the emergency room
at Baylor Medical Center at Irving, the city of Plano proclaimed April 13
"Dr. Larry Alexander Day." And in restaurants and at the cleaners near his
home in Carrollton, people are bound to recognize him.

Although he has a long track record of being politically active in
medicine, his all-consuming mission to save youths from heroin was never
something he set out to do.

"I fell into something that I think has had a major impact on people's
lives," he said.

The event that steered him toward his unintended crusade occurred nearly a
year ago during an overnight emergency room shift.

About 2 a.m. July 24, three teenage boys began pounding frantically on an
ambulance door outside the emergency room. When Dr. Alexander went outside
to see what had happened, the youths pointed him to their friend slumped in
the back seat of a Suburban. He wasn't breathing and his skin was cold. He
had been dead at least 10 minutes.

Dr. Alexander began trying to revive the boy even as the motionless figure
was being raced into the hospital. But all of his attempts failed. The
teen's lungs and stomach were filled with vomit.

George Wesley Scott, 19, had become the latest casualty of Plano's heroin
problem.

Younger Victims

Dr. Alexander had seen his share of heroin overdoses while a resident in a
Kansas City, Mo., hospital. But all were adults in their 30s. Despite
emerging publicity about Plano youths dying from heroin overdoses, he
didn't associate the drug with teens.

But three weeks after Mr. Scott's death, Dr. Alexander treated another teen
who had overdosed on heroin. By then, he decided he had to do something.

About the same time, Plano high school counselor Greg Thomas was trying to
figure out a way to discourage more youths from using heroin. Two students
who had watched friends die of overdoses or battled heroin addiction
themselves mentioned Dr. Alexander's name.

What made the physician so memorable was his personality, Mr. Thomas said.

"They could tell that he was genuinely concerned about them and about their
well-being and wasn't just doing a job," Mr. Thomas said. "They could feel
that in his presence. His demeanor struck a lot of young kids."

Dr. Alexander readily accepted an invitation to serve as one of three
adults who would speak to Plano East High School students about the dangers
of heroin during a two-day seminar in October.

But as the other panelists spoke, Dr. Alexander noticed that the students
weren't paying much attention - particularly to a coroner's sometimes
incomprehensible medical jargon.

When it was his turn, Dr. Alexander was careful to use plain language, but
when he looked out at his audience, he realized they weren't paying
attention to him either.

New Style Of Teaching

So he invited the students to ask questions - not just about drugs, but
anything at all. Some asked about what it was like to work in an emergency
room. Another asked what it was like to die from heroin.

Dr. Alexander began explaining the physical effects in graphic detail. He
told them how the drug paralyzes a person's gag reflex so that during the
inevitable vomiting, the vomit slides back into the body and fills the
lungs, causing a panic akin to drowning.

By then, the students' eyes were riveted on him. So for the seminar's
second day, he came armed with an all-out battle plan.

In addition to preparing the most graphic scenario he could of death by
heroin, he left his dress slacks and blazer at home and instead wore
bluejeans, tennis shoes and a plain shirt. Until it was his turn to talk,
he sat among the students, who assumed he was someone's older brother or
perhaps a college student.

Apparently, it worked.

Students bombarded him with questions, asking what to do about their
heroin-addicted friends. Some told him they were addicts themselves.

The following month, an audience at Plano Senior High School at times
gasped and murmured during Dr. Alexander's presentation, said Lars
Clemensen, 18.

"So many times when people get up and talk about a problem, like teachers,
the students just tune them out," Lars said. "But when Dr. Alexander got up
there and he was talking about these things firsthand, about what heroin
actually does to you, it made everyone grossed out and say, 'That's not
something I want to do.'

"You always think, it's not going to happen to me or it's not really that
bad. He wowed the audience with all these scary facts."

Word of Dr. Alexander's effectiveness spread, and invitations from
Richardson, Allen, Wylie and other cities poured in. Dr. Alexander eagerly
accepted. The lectures - to students and parents - consumed most of his
free time.

History Of Action

Friend and colleague David Templeton, an emergency room physician at
Medical Center of Plano, said he wasn't surprised to see Dr. Alexander
taking such an active role.

"He's always been a let's-get-it-done-now kind of a person," Dr. Templeton
said. "As an emergency room physician, it bothers all of us . . . to see
these kids when they overdose. But in Larry's case, he not only feels the
burden, but he moves forward."

When the two men first met at the University of Missouri-Kansas City in
1990, Dr. Alexander was heavily active in school, state and national
medical organizations.

Back then, Dr. Templeton said, he might have suspected his colleague's
involvement in the heroin problem was a path to gain political recognition.
But Dr. Alexander's time commitment - almost every hour that he doesn't
work or sleep - quickly quashed that notion.

"He has spent huge amount of time studying and reading about this," Dr.
Templeton said.

Dr. Alexander said his fervor is fueled by a personal crisis several years
ago, when his brother-in-law committed suicide.

"I thought, 'I'm in medical school. Why didn't I recognize what was going
on with him?' It tore my family apart. . . . It may be some of the feelings
I have there that . . . are part of my driving force."

Despite his seemingly constant fight against heroin, Dr. Alexander said, he
tries to carve out some time to wind down by working out three times a week
and fulfilling his passions for travel and reading, particularly ancient
history.

A bachelor, he says he tries to leave town at least once a month to visit
friends or spend time alone relaxing.

But when school resumes in the fall, Dr. Alexander said, he'll be back in
the classroom as well.

"I will make it stay a high priority until the situation no longer needs
me."

Checked-by: Richard Lake