News From Terre Haute, Indiana

February 16, 2007

14-year-old still critical after alcohol poisoning

Tribune-Star staff report

TERRE HAUTE — A Terre Haute teenager remained in an intensive-care unit Friday in an Indianapolis hospital, suffering from alcohol poisoning.

Robert Patton, 14, was in critical condition Friday afternoon in Riley Hospital for Children, said hospital spokesman Gene Ford. A hospital spokeswoman on Friday evening would say only that Patton was a patient there.

Terre Haute police were investigating the case to determine who supplied vodka that Patton had been drinking with Kool-Aid, said Capt. Kevin Mayes.

Patton is an eighth-grader at Chauncey Rose Middle School. Rescue workers found the teenager unconscious about midnight Tuesday in a home in the 2200 block of First Avenue.

He was taken to Union Hospital and later transferred to Riley Hospital.