BRISBANE, Australia - Australian doctors said they plugged a poisoned Italian tourist into a vodka drip after running out of the medicinal alcohol they would normally have used to save his life.
The 24-year-old Italian, who was not further identified, was diagnosed as having ingested a large quantity of ethylene glycol, a common ingredient in antifreeze that can cause renal failure.
Pure alcohol is often given in treating such cases because it can inhibit the toxic effects of ethylene glycol.
Dr. Pascal Gelperowicz at Mackay Base Hospital where the man was taken for treatment said he was given pharmaceutical-grade alcohol on arrival, but that the hospital's supplies soon ran out.
"We quickly used all the available vials of 100 percent alcohol and decided the next best way to get alcohol into the man's system was by feeding him spirits through a nasogastric tube," Gelperowicz said in a statement.
"The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit," he said. "The hospital's administrators were also very understanding when we explained our reasons for buying a case of vodka."
The patient made a successful recovery. The incident occurred about two months ago, though the hospital just released information on the case.
I have a few concerns about this. For starters, I really wouldn't want to be treated in a hospital that doesn't have an ample supply of alcohol. I realize that the patient was a tourist visiting Brisbane, and he probably didn't have much choice in the matter, but if it were a non-emergency case, I think I'd do a bit of research and find out if the hospital had enough normal supplies, like alcohol, on hand. Second, I wonder what brand of vodka they used. I can't imagine they would have been pumping Grey Goose or Belvedere into the guy's veins; I'm guessing it was the Australian equivalentof Heaven Hill. And what about the amount of vodka they gave the poor guy - three drinks worth every hour? They didn't say how long it took to heal him, but I'm thinking that in normal get-your-drink-on circumstances, three drinks an hour continuously would kill you after 5 or 6 hours. After thinking about this story, it's definitely in the "WTF?" category.
2 comments:
We were just talking about this yesterday lol ~ Mercy
Dear Puddin'
If this ever happens to me, please make sure they use tequila instead of vodka. Thanks.
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