A patient in Australia who drank six bottles of hand sanitiser while being treated for alcoholism has highlighted the need for the antibacterial gels in hospitals to be bolted to ward walls so they could only be refilled but never removed.
Doctors at The Alfred hospital were stunned when they discovered the man had downed six bottles of hand sanitiser, giving him a blood alcohol reading of 0.271 per cent, or the equivalent of drinking about 20 stubbies of beer, reports the Herald Sun.
The 45-year-old had been undergoing treatment for alcohol-related gastritis when he drank the 375ml bottles of sanitiser, which have an ethanol content of 66 per cent and are routinely used by medical staff to prevent infections spreading between patients.
Dr Michael Oldmeadow, a consultant physician at the hospital, said the man had been lucky to survive.
He said although the incident was not the first of its kind, it was the most serious case he had seen.
"What we want to achieve is to bolt a container to the wall so it can only be refilled but can't be removed from the wall,” he said.
Nurses discovered the near-empty sanitiser bottles while cleaning his bed.
He had been admitted to hospital three days earlier and suddenly became drowsy for no apparent reason.
The man admitted to drinking the sanitiser and agreed to undergo a breath test.