A man in New Zealand lost his sight after drinking vodka, but thanks to some quick thinking doctors and a €40 bottle of whiskey he regained his sight.
We’ve all heard the expression ‘blind drunk’ before, well it actually happened to a guy from New Zealand who mixed his diabetes medication with some vodka and then went blind. Luckily for 65-year-old Denis Duthie his doctors knew exactly what to give him, that being a stiff whiskey.
Duthie was celebrating his parent’s 50th wedding anniversary when he literally blacked out. “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 told The New Zealand Herald. “I was fumbling around the bedroom for the light switch but… I’d just gone completely blind.”
After rushing Duthie to hospital doctors told his wife to start saying her last goodbyes and it was only when they cut Duthie open for a better look did they realise what had happened.
Apparently the vodka mixed with his diabetes medication causing formaldehyde poisoning. Thankfully, ethanol – the alcohol found in alcoholic drinks – can treat formaldehyde poisoning so doctors quickly rushed down to the off-licence and bought a €40 bottle of whiskey and fed it straight into his stomach.
Five days later Duthie woke up completely cured. He’s now using his newfound fame to warn other people off of excessive drinking.
“Curtail your drinking,” he said to Stuff.co.nz. “Don’t do what I did or else you’ll be dead.”
