NationStates Jolt Archive

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21219366/?GT1=10450
RISBANE, 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 always knew drinking could save your life.

I'm surprised this story isn't from Russia :D

Them Aussies...

Why is this newsworthy? Ethanol is used to treat things like methanol poisoning all the time - why is this case of antifreeze poisoning special?

More injections of vodka into your bloodstream plz, kthx!

More injections of vodka into your bloodstream plz, kthx!

They didn't inject it into the bloodstream.

Why is this newsworthy? Ethanol is used to treat things like methanol poisoning all the time - why is this case of antifreeze poisoning special?

My guess would be the fact that the hospital ran out of pharmaceutical grade ethanol and went out to the corner store and bought some vodka?

They didn't inject it into the bloodstream.

Australian doctors said they plugged a poisoned Italian tourist into a vodka drip

Forgive me if I am wrong, but doesn't "drip" usually refer to IVs?

In any case, I still don't want that injection :cool:

My guess would be the fact that the hospital ran out of pharmaceutical grade ethanol and went out to the corner store and bought some vodka?

So? It's the same alcohol - they could have used any spirit, really.

Forgive me if I am wrong, but doesn't "drip" usually refer to IVs?

"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."

You need to practice your reading.

"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."

You need to practice your reading.

It would help if I had actually read the article and not just the ...ehm, excerpts of the... excerpt provided.

It would help if I had actually read the article and not just the ...ehm, excerpts of the... excerpt provided.

See - that's why one should always demand the source and when such is given, read it.

See - that's why one should always demand the source and when such is given, read it.

Indeed.

I must admit, I couldn't be bothered.

Plus the whole injection thing sounded more fun (albeit more dangerous too) than drinking yourself wasted (I've tried the whole 24 units in a day...)

antifreeze? the man was in Australia! :p

they could have used any spirit, really.

http://www.geckotales.com/ghost.jpg

See - that's why one should always demand the source and when such is given, read it.

The links been at the top of the OP the entire time. The only thing I did in the edit was add the second half of the article that I didnt notice I didnt highlight in the copy paste.

The links been at the top of the OP the entire time. The only thing I did in the edit was add the second half of the article that I didnt notice I didnt highlight in the copy paste.

That was general advice. Hence the general terms.

That's an interesting way to get someone else to buy your spirits.

lo siento pero, this story been done before. Although its still funny how advances in medicine include using tactics from the 16th century.

Huh, I posted this a week ago. Though, IIRC, no one actually replied to my thread. Bastards. ;)

Huh, I posted this a week ago. Though, IIRC, no one actually replied to my thread. Bastards. ;)

its not news if you do it yourself :p

I'm surprised this story isn't from Russia :)

Ahem...

Dr. Pascal Gelperowicz

This surname looks suspiciously Slavonic... Probably a descendant of some Pole or Polish Jew :)

Although its still funny how advances in medicine include using tactics from the 16th century.

This "tactic" has a very sound biochemical basis. It isn't the ethylene glycol itself that poses the greatest threat to the patient but its metabolites. Ethanol is metabolised using the same pathway, so by administering ethanol to the patient one prevents the breakdown of ethylene glycol into those harmful metabolites and this allows the patient's body enough time to clear it and the metabolites that have already been formed.

There is actually a modern drug called fomepizole which inhibits the same metabolic pathways and that can be used instead of ethanol, but it is much more expensive and less available.