Hospital gives man drip-feed of vodka

[DS1]

BRISBANE, Australia - Doctors plugged an Italian tourist into a drip-feed of vodka to save him at a hospital in Australia that ran out of the medicinal alcohol it would normally have used for treatment.

The 24-year-old Italian, who was not further identified, was brought to Mackay Base Hospital in northeastern Queensland state and was diagnosed as having ingested a large quantity of ethylene glycol, a common ingredient of 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. Mackay Base Hospital Dr. Pascal Gelperowicz said the man was given pharmaceutical-grade alcohol when he arrived, but that the hospital's supplies soon ran out. "We quickly used all the available vials of 100 per cent alcohol and decided the next best way to get alcohol into the man's system was by feeding him spirits through a naso gastric tube," Dr. 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."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071010/ap_on_fe_st/vodka_drip

[crim son]

1. He must have had the worst damn hangover when he woke up.

How awful.

[DS1]

3. a few hits of hash would clear that right up

[Jamastiene]

2. How fucking cool is that?

I can't imagine the doctors and nurses around my neck of the woods being that cool and bothering to save me life. This bunch around here would all still be praying over me as I lay gasping and telling them not to do that.

[SOteric]

4. For the love of God, please, -

tell matcom he may NOT go to Australia and drink anti-freeze just to get a booze IV.

[ohiosmith]

5. I am so there the next time I drink anti-freeze.

[supernova]

6. Hey DS1, we need a graphic

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=105&topic_id=7018439&mesg_id=7018452