Nguyen Van Nhat

In early 2019, doctors prescribed 15 cans of beer for Nguyen Van Nhat, a 48-year-old Vietnamese man. Curiously, the weird alcoholic prescription was used to cure alcohol poisoning. Trouble started for Nhat after he consumed a drink containing methanol, a poisonous form of alcohol. The alcohols we often consume are made with ethanol. Nhat was admitted to intensive care where doctors passed 15 cans of beer into his body. Doctors first administered three cans of beer to Nhat. Thereafter, they administered one can of beer every hour to rid his body of the poisonous methanol. This worked because the liver prioritizes the breakdown of ethanol over methanol. While the liver concentrated on the ethanol, doctors performed dialysis to rid Nhat’s body of the methanol. Doctors would have used vodka in place of beer because vodka has a higher ethanol content. However, they used beer because no vodka was available. Nhat was discharged after the procedure.[