Man Addicted To Alcohol Caught Drinking Hand Sanitizers

A 26-year-old alcoholic was so desperate for alcohol stole multiple hand sanitizer bottles so he could get drunk off of the alcohol they contained.

The unnamed patient, from France, visited his local emergency room complaining of severe abdominal pain.

Despite a normal exam and receiving pain medications, the patient continued to claim his pain had not subsided and he grew agitated.

When additional testing and more doctors could not find anything wrong with him, the man’s roommate informed a nurse that the patient had been taking hand sanitizer bottles, hiding them in his bag, and drinking them throughout his stay.

Doctors found several bottles of sanitizer in his bag, of which about 1.5 were consumed.

The man admitted to faking his pain to get access to the sanitizer, which contained about 80 percent pure alcohol because he was going through withdrawals due to addiction.

Man Addicted To Alcohol Caught Drinking Hand Sanitizers

When the patient first arrived in the ER, doctors wrote he was irritated and ‘sometimes verbally aggressive.’

They noted that his abdominal exam and vitals were normal, though he had ‘general poor hygiene’ and a slightly elevated heart rate.

He was given several IV medications, including morphine for pain, though he remained agitated.

When the patient continued to complain of pain, additional doctors sent him for a scan of his abdomen, which did not reveal any potential cause for his pain, but rather showed he had a fatty liver, which is often a sign of alcohol use disorder.

His blood tests showed slightly elevated liver enzymes, a sign of liver damage or inflammation.

Shortly after the tests, the patient’s roommate spilled the news about the hand sanitizer.

Hospital staff found seven 16-ounce bottles in his bag, and about one and a half had been consumed in roughly four to six hours.

Further blood tests revealed the patient’s blood alcohol level was 0.2 percent, or two and a half times the legal limit.

The doctors said this hand sanitizer contains 80 percent alcohol. A can of beer is just five percent. This means that the one-and-a-half bottles this patient drank are the equivalent of 24 drinks.

The patient admitted that he had been drinking the sanitizer to ease his alcohol withdrawal symptoms.

The patient’s medical team warned alcoholics can become so desperate that they display bizarre alcohol-seeking behaviors to get a fix.

Each bottle contained about 16 times more pure alcohol than the average beer.

Doctors who treated the patient warned of an increase in such incidents, as the Covid pandemic made hand sanitizer more widely available, particularly in hospitals.

‘Hand sanitizers are in no doubt essential tools to fight infection, protecting both the user and others,’ the physicians wrote.

Doctors gave the patient fluids and infusions of vitamins B1, B3, and B6 to reduce the toxicity from the alcohol and hydrate him.

He was admitted to the hospital under observation for 24 hours.

When he was discharged, he was referred to addiction specialists.