Vodka please....I've been poisoned

Interesting read about Australian doctors at Mackay Base Hospital in Queensland. They used an intravenous feed of vodka to keep an Italian tourist alive after he consumed large quantities of a poisonous substance.

The man had swallowed ethylene glycol. Doctors administered pure alcohol, the conventional antidote, but exhausted the hospital's supply so hooked up an intravenous feed of vodka.

"The patient was drip-fed about three standard drinks an hour for three days in the ICU...Fortunately for him he was in a medically induced coma..."

Well, lucky for him being in a coma most of the time! I would have hated to have had his hangover otherwise

 

that's priceless, we always joked about intravenous alcohol to save time, this just takes the biscuit.

 

I would hate to pay that tab...

E

 

Ethylene glycol, otherwise known as antifreeze.

 

Yes...heard that said soooo many times in the pastLOL

Reckon it would compete with his hospital bill if he isn't insured. Some lot of vodka...thought makes me woozyLOL

Yep...perhaps he just didn't read the label...or just wanted some extra shots:foolish

 

They found a small amount of blood in his alcohol stream

http://img152.imageshack.us/img152/9495/isdh5jqsuasfxkenmzlcp5vxa8.png

 

LOL... flashbacks to some fire department parties.... next morning since I'm not hangover prone, I would be hooking people up with oxygen and IV saline. Seeing as how most hangover symptoms are caused by dehydration and a lack of oygen to the brain, I caled it the 30 minute hangover cure. Works every time.

~C

 

Love your pics Bill...always so spot on

LOLGot an image of these slack inebriated bodies laying about with you running around disgustingly stone cold sober with IVs...actually, just as well you were sober and knew where you were sticking themroflmao

 

This is true, (I was a nurse, of all things, once upon a time). That's why on the rare I occasion I've had a lot to drink, I'll drink plenty of water - both immediately after, and the next morning. You might feel a bit worse initially, when the alcohol affected organs rehydrate, so to speak, but reduces the hangover and organ shrinkage effect on the brain and liver, etc.

Ethanol is a solvent for ethylene glycol (antifreeze). So that's probably why the hospital used it to try and flush the toxic ethylene glycol out of the bloodstream. Vodka (presumably plain, not flavoured),is nearest thing to a 20% ethanol drip.

Reminds me of a news story I head years ago, where some bootleggers in Europe got busted putting antifreeze in wine. They ended up spraying the contraband on the iced up roads, LoL!

 

heheheh... yeah, but then, I have always had a knack for putting aneedle in a vein. During the 13 years I spent as a phlebotomist (vampire for the rest of you) I would tell people about how much nicer it was to work in an office as oposed to hanging upside down through a driver side window of a car at 3 in the AM in the pouring rain and working by flashlight.

I also had the dubious distinction of being a pediatric specialist. As good as I was, I really hated that aprt of it.

So glad I moved on..... not to get off topic or anything. I'm tired, don't mind me, almost time to go home and go sleepy time


~C

 

roflmao
I've always enjoyed the company of the people of the night.....muharharharharhar

 

Spot on Phantom.

LOL on contraband being sprayed on the iced up roads story...

 

Ethylene glycol isn't inherently toxic, but the metabolites created by the breakdown of ethylene glycol in the body are. The first enzyme involved in the metabolic breakdown of EG is alcohol dehydrogenase -- the same is true for ethanol. So if you get someone loaded up on ethanol, it keeps all of the alcohol dehydrogenase occupied so that the EG cannot be converted to the toxic metabolites and the body will just flush it out of the system as ethylene glycol.

 

Never was into chemistry so thanks for that! Can't beat learning something everyday

 

Heheh... now we all know how it works


~C

 

Yep, for those that want to know the details of metabolism:-

http://www.antizol.com/egpoisono.htm

 

So I guess now we can't just go ahead and ask for a couple of shots of vodka if we think we've been poisoned huh?