Seriously

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7037443.stm

I think I'd rather just avoid the need for a vodka drip.

funny how real life mirrors fiction. on House last season, that was the technique used to cure a patient who had ingested non-drinking alcohol.

This is the mechanism by which alcoholics can drink methanol without dying but you and I would go blind and keel over as the methanol is converted to formaldehyde and then formic acid via alcohol dehydrogenase and aldehyde dehydrogenase. The drunk has so much ethanol in the body that the body is too busy metabolising the ethanol to convert methanol to the stronger poisons. The methanol is passed out through the kidneys the drunk survives.

The question they should be asking is how the heck the hospital ran out of medical grade ethanol. And they had this going for 3 days???? No delivery of medical ethanol within 3 days? where is this place? Remind me to get the insurance that says they teleport me home if I get sick.

Oh,

I thought he had some sort of new STD.

Well, it was Queensland, Australia. It was probably cheaper to do the vodka than to have the ethanol flown in.

Huh. I have a friend who lives in Queensland. Wonder if he knows about the new doctoring methods...

Actually, knowing him, he's the one who got the IV.