Doctors have warned against too much drunkenness at summer parties this year after treating a man who passed out and fell into a coma.
The 31-year-old patient drank an entire 500ml bottle of tequila and two shots of shochu, a type of Japanese liquor, during a party at a nightclub in Izunokuni, Japan.
He lost consciousness and was rushed to hospital, where tests revealed he was in a “deep coma” and had dangerous levels of fluid in his lungs.
Doctors put him on a ventilator to prevent him from choking on the fluid, which they suspected was vomit that had caused him to choke.
A 31-year-old man drank the equivalent of 11 shots and two cups of a Japanese drink called shochu (broth)
The CT scan of the chest showed hazy spots and shadow areas in the posterior parts of both lungs, with more significant findings on the left side. This indicates fluid accumulation in the lungs
The patient owned a nightclub but was otherwise healthy and not an alcoholic.
After being taken to hospital, he was given a score of E1V1M1 on the Glasgow Coma Scale, a scale used to measure a person’s level of consciousness after a head injury.
The score was that he could not open his eyes even when stimulated. He did not speak, groan or make any noise and he did not move his limbs or any other body part in response to commands or painful stimuli, such as a pinch.
His blood pressure and heart rate were normal, but he had difficulty breathing and became hypothermic.
His tongue was also blocking his airway and there were crackling sounds coming from his lungs, indicating fluid in his lungs.
This was probably caused by vomiting while unconscious, causing stomach contents to leak into the lungs.
Doctors who treated the man at Juntendo Shizuoka Hospital in Japan said: ‘The main life-threatening consequence of acute poisoning with high blood alcohol concentration is respiratory depression.
‘In these circumstances, poisoning also reduces airway sensitivity and reflex blockage of foreign bodies, increasing the risk of aspiration.’
On the second day, he regained consciousness and his lung function improved, allowing doctors to remove the breathing tube.
On the third day he was discharged from the hospital.
The case report was published in the American Journal of Medical Case Reports.
The patient drank 500 ml and two glasses of spirits, which equates to approximately 13 shots of spirits.
The CDC recommends drinking no more than one shot per day, or one beer or glass of wine.
Alcohol is considered the most abused drug there is, with 16.3 million American adults who reported heavy alcohol use in the past month.
About one in five adults say they sometimes drink more than they think they should. This is more common among men than women.
Americans are drinking as much now as they did during the Civil War—an average of about 2.5 gallons a year. That’s up from 2.15 gallons in 1995 and 2.3 gallons at the end of World War II.
For years we have been told that red wine, in moderation, about a glass a night with dinner, has a positive effect on heart health. Now the public has learned that this is not true.
Researchers have found that the past evidence to support this claim is weak and has only been documented in observational studies, meaning that other factors may be at play.
And the World Health Organization says that no amount of alcohol is safe or healthy.
A study in the UK found that even Britons considered low-risk drinkers had an 11 percent higher risk of dying from cancer compared to ‘occasional drinkers’.
People from poorer areas had it even harder: they were 25 percent more likely to die from cancer and 14 percent more likely to die overall.