A New Zealand man who went blind after drinking vodka had his sight saved – by a bottle of whisky.
Denis Duthie, 65, suddenly went blind when vodka he had been drinking reacted with his diabetes medication, reports the New Zealand Herald.
Mr Duthie, a catering tutor, had been celebrating his parents’ 50th wedding anniversary by having a few vodkas from a bottle his students had given him as a present.
But when he walked into a bedroom in his home everything suddenly went black.
“I thought it had got dark and I’d missed out on a bit of time but it was only about half-past-three in the afternoon,” he said.
“I was fumbling around the bedroom for the light switch but I’d just gone completely blind.”
Mr Duthie was rushed to Taranaki Base Hospital, where doctors thought he might have formaldehyde poisoning.
It is associated with ingesting methanol and can be treated by administering ethanol – the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages.
There wasn’t enough medical ethanol available in the hospital, so the registrar nipped down to the local off licence and picked up a bottle of whisky which was dripped straight into his stomach via a tube.
“Johnnie Walker Black Label. It was good whisky, yeah,” Mr Duthie said. “I woke up five days later and I could see as soon as I could open my eyes.”
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Vodka-blinded_man_saved_by_whisky
by Arthur Furrowfield