If someone is daring you to drink Drano or some similar caustic, I rcommend you get a much distance between them and you as is possible.
Or say: “You first!” and then after they do, say, :“Nah, I changed my mind.” and walk out and call an ambulance for them, cause they’ll need it.
I caught a documentary segment about a guy who tried to snuff himself by drinking Draino. Then he changed his mind and called 911. IIRC, they took out his stomach and much of his large intestine. They ran his esophagus outside of his breastbone and under his skin, and he had to move his food down it with his fingers. Since he had no stomach, he had to eat about every 15 minutes in order to get enough nutrition to survive.
Hmm… never thought about posting this story, but here goes.
When I was in high school (late eighties), my best friend’s mother was a nurse in a large, urban hospital. She had a guy in her charge that had tried to off himself by drinking Drano after it was discovered he had been sexually molesting his infant daughter. Results were pretty much as described, no esophagus… but I always admired her for being able to treat the man professionally, given that she knew the whole story.
I used to work for a suicide hotline. As part of our training, we learned all sorts of gruesome facts about various methods of suicide, so that we could share these facts with callers to try to convince them that this wasn’t the way to go. E.g. Cutting your wrists can leave you with claw hands, and so forth.
I was told that ingesting Drano or other such products is generally considered just about the most painful form of suicide there is. (Although I’m sure the infinitely creative members of the SDMB could probably dream up a few even more painful ways.)
I’m not sure that Drano would be effective here. The proteins in hair are better dissolved by imbibing concentrated acid. Don’t try this at home.
If this is a college-roommate type of situation and there’s a lot of drinking involved, I’d even more strongly recommend disposing of the Drano (at your local household hazardous waste depot, of course :)). I would imagine that a person who was dared to drink Drano would probably have very strong second thoughts as soon as it touched their lips, but even that might cause serious burns and possibly permanent disfigurement.
BTW, the scene in Fight Club where Tyler puts lye on the other guy’s hand is a good example of the author/screenplay factor in movies. Burns from acids and bases are always treated by immediately washing the burned area with large amounts of cold water. Attempting to neutralize the acid or base can make matters worse – you can change an acid burn to a base burn, or you can increase the damage through the large amounts of heat released by neutralization reactions. Most importantly, you waste time. There is a standard lab accident story about someone who got sulfuric acid in his eye and proceeded to calmly calculate and measure the amount of base needed to neutralize it. In the time needed to do this, he went blind in that eye – and a cold-water eye wash probably would have saved his eye.
Before dealing with acid my Chemistry teacher in high school told us about a kid that was messing around during a lab and threw what he thought was a test tube of water at a girls face, in actuality is was some type of acid and burned her horribly. The teacher immediately put her under one of those emergency showers and some of her skin sloughed off. The girl had to have many facial reconstructive surgeries (which the parents kid who threw the acid had to pay for) and was permanently disfigured. 
that should read: which the parents of the kid who threw the acid had to pay for! :smack:
My great-aunt committed suicide by drinking lye when she found out that her husband was cheating on her. According to my mother, who was there at the time, it would be hard to pick a more painful, messy, and traumatic way to kill yourself.
I went to school with a boy who had ingested drano or something similar as a very young child. He had some serious white and red chemical burn scars on his neck and other scars from surgery. He was also seriously froggy and had the graveliest voice you could imagine.
Hey - if you can swallow a plumber’s snake you’ll make a lot more than $5 on a friday night in my neighbourhood. 
ok, just for the record - this isn’t a college/frat thing. We’re all post-college, pre-marriage roommates. And my roommates aren’t seriously expecting me to do something which they are just as aware of as I am would be fatal. I was mostly just curious in an what-if situation. And based on the excellent feedback (I wouldn’t expect any less from GQ), I’m going to invest in a snake and stop bringing such crazy-pyscho-killer juice into my house.
The first time I was about 2-3 and my babysitter was not pay attention, and my parents must not of had safety locks, I only got some on my lips.
Then when I was in a very down part of my life I consumed it to end my life. Well I am still here but OMG it was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. I was in a drug induced coma for 2 weeks. The doctors told my spouse I could suffer brain damage in both reported cases they know about both people had. I was very lucky in that department. I do have terrible eating, always will, but better then the feeding tube they were going to just put in thank GOD my nurse that day. I choke easily do not like to eat in public or around anyone but my family. At least I can sallow a small Ibporfion if needed, could not at first had to work at it with big drinks of water. Oh and eroded the enamel on all of my back teeth, had to have them pulled. I am not sure if I caused other damage oh and I do remember because Oh this I was never to smoke or drink booze again it would kill me, well I am still here and been doing both since, I did drink way to much a year ago too, so do not believe everything they tell you. I am sure that I am one lucky btc* though =) and believe will never go there again, Oh and I had a daughter who is almost 3 now also
Since this thread is over nine years old, I’m going to close it.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator