Last Updated on 2020-01-24 , 10:28 pm
Once in a while, humanity chances upon an incident that breathes new life to an oft-quoted saying.
In Mandarin, the saying “以毒攻毒” literally means to use poison against poison.
While in Queen’s English, there’s the phrase “Fighting fire with fire.”
In short, both idiomatic expression relates to how one can utilize a method/tactic/material/chemical as an antidote to a similar woe.
And this was so in a case, in Vietnam.
Beer, the Panacea
My alcoholic friends swear by the use, no, consumption of beer, as a panacea to all their woes.
Relationship issues? Check
Money problems? Check
Work Stress? Check
Now, what about alcoholic issues? Check that now
Straight out of the Quang Tri Province in north-central Vietnam, Tuoi Tre news reported that “Nguyen Van Nhat, 48, was hospitalized on December 25 with symptoms of severe methanol poisoning after consuming a massive amount of alcohol at a party earlier that day.”
It was reported that Nhat’s blood samples contained 1,119 times the legal limit of alcohol.
Now that’s common right? Nothing new, seeing as to how it’s the festive period with Christmas just past and Lunar New Year coming up.
But what comes next is really the wet dreams of all lager-lovvin’ folks.
To save Nhat, who “was unconscious and in a life-threatening condition by the time he made it to Quang Tri General Hospital in Quang Tri Province” doctors gave him not one, not three, but a freakin’ 18 cans of beer in under 24 hours to save Nhat’s live.
Say what????
The Numbers and Science
Broadly speaking, there are two variants of alcohol – ethanol and methanol.
Nhat you see, had consumed what was believed to have been impure liquor or badly-distilled alcohol , which is subsequently broken down into methanol.
According to the article, “when methanol is broken down, it releases formaldehyde, a highly toxic chemical compound that can be deadly when consumed in high levels. Meanwhile, ethanol does not lead to serious poisoning when it is broken down by the liver.”
Le Van Lam, head of the hospital’s intensive care unit, shared that “the human liver prioritizes breaking down ethanol over methanol” and it was to this extent doctors immediately administered three cans of beer into Nhat’s system.
In doing so, Nhat’s kidneys began to prioritize breaking down the legit-beer into ethanol over the fake/bad-beer into methanol.
After the initial three cans, these amazing doctors administered one can of beer to Nhat for the next 15 hours and Nhat finally recovered enough to be discharged.
Wow.
At this point, there’s just too many wise quip-options for me to end this article with.
Seeing as to how I can’t freaking settle on one, here goes.
#BeeryGood
But of course, please don’t be an idiot and down more beer when you’re wasted. It’s definitely not going to end well for you.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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