Topeka Capital-Journal
DES MOINES, Iowa — Des Moines police say a Drake University junior from Kansas died after a night of drinking as she celebrated her 21st birthday.
According to The Des Moines Register, a police report says Lydia G. Clark returned home around 3:30 a.m. Saturday after she and friends visited several bars. The report says Clark, a 2008 Jefferson West High School graduate from Meriden, Kan., had consumed about 16 shots of alcohol.
Clark woke up around 9:30 a.m. feeling “very sick,” according to the police report. About noon, she sought help to use the bathroom, then laid on the floor to rest.
A friend checked on her minutes later and found she wasn’t breathing. The friend called 911 and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Emergency responders arrived four minutes later and transported Clark to a hospital, where she died.
The police report blamed alcohol consumption for Drake’s death, but the Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office said the official manner and cause of death is pending further tests, a process that typically takes six to eight weeks.
The Register reported Tuesday that Drake President David Maxwell sent an email Saturday to students and staff members.
The email didn’t state a cause of death.
An obituary published Monday in The Topeka Capital-Journal by Penwell-Gabel Parker-Price Chapel on behalf of the family said Clark “died unexpectedly from an undiagnosed heart condition.”
The obituary said the family will receive friends from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Friday at Meriden United Methodist Church, 100 S. Dawson St. A memorial ceremony will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the church.
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