ZenGum • Oct 11, 2007 2:45 pm
This is from the The BBC at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7037443.stm
The (Australian) ABC News service has slightly different details, at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/10/2055520.htm
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Doctors save man with vodka drip
Australian doctors have kept an Italian tourist alive by feeding him vodka through a drip for three days, medical staff in Queensland say.
The 24-year-old man, who had swallowed a poison in an apparent suicide attempt, was treated while in a coma.
Doctors set up the drip after running out of medicinal alcohol, used as an antidote to the poison.
Medical staff said the patient had made a full recovery, and the hangover had worn off by the time he woke up.
He had been taken to hospital in the northern Queensland town of Mackay after swallowing ethylene glycol - a poison contained in anti-freeze.
"The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit," Dr Todd Fraser said in a statement.
"Fortunately for him he was in a medically induced coma for a good portion of that. By the time he woke up I think his hangover would have well and truly gone."
He spent 20 days in hospital before being discharged.
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The math:
3 days.
24 hours in a day.
3 standard drinks per hour.
3 x 24 x 3 = 216 standard drinks, or, technically, pissed as a newt.
Even allowing for his body processing 1 standard drink per hour, by the end he'd still have 144 standard drinks in him ... if my guess is correct that translates to a blood alcohol level of 1.44% ...:eek:
D'you reckon he drove home?
The (Australian) ABC News service has slightly different details, at http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/10/2055520.htm
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Doctors save man with vodka drip
Australian doctors have kept an Italian tourist alive by feeding him vodka through a drip for three days, medical staff in Queensland say.
The 24-year-old man, who had swallowed a poison in an apparent suicide attempt, was treated while in a coma.
Doctors set up the drip after running out of medicinal alcohol, used as an antidote to the poison.
Medical staff said the patient had made a full recovery, and the hangover had worn off by the time he woke up.
He had been taken to hospital in the northern Queensland town of Mackay after swallowing ethylene glycol - a poison contained in anti-freeze.
"The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the intensive care unit," Dr Todd Fraser said in a statement.
"Fortunately for him he was in a medically induced coma for a good portion of that. By the time he woke up I think his hangover would have well and truly gone."
He spent 20 days in hospital before being discharged.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The math:
3 days.
24 hours in a day.
3 standard drinks per hour.
3 x 24 x 3 = 216 standard drinks, or, technically, pissed as a newt.
Even allowing for his body processing 1 standard drink per hour, by the end he'd still have 144 standard drinks in him ... if my guess is correct that translates to a blood alcohol level of 1.44% ...:eek:
D'you reckon he drove home?