What exactly is the cause of death when someone drinks himself to death? I don’t mean something long-term like liver failure, but perhaps in minutes or hours.
One of my former best friends died this way, and I’m just trying to understand what may have happened.
Acute Alcohol Poisoning.
Alcohol is a toxin - which is why we vomit if we are able to - it is the body’s way of survival.
How your friend managed to et past the various defenses - vomit, unconsciousness (prevent additional intake until liver and kidneys can get rid of it), I don’t know - what was he or she was consuming, or how - obviously, an IV injection of 190 Everclear would take seconds to acquire a lethal dose
People (story goes) have died via alcoholic enema.
It’s possible with spirits.
IIRC ethanol is absorbed by the body best in a % range that is lower than the % of alcohol in most basic spirits (eg, Vodka or Whiskey)
So, if someone was really drinking to get drunk, by drinking straight sprits quicly either by necking the bottle or doing lots of shots would mean you would get the alcohol into your stomach faster that it could get into your blood stream and make you drunk. This would mean that for a while after you finished drinking the alcohol you had already consumed would continue to be absorbed and you would get drunker as it catches up with you. Even if you collapsed and passed out, your blood alcohol level could continue to rise for a period of time.
So sometimes, stopping drinking when you start to feel sick, is too late.
hello panache45, alcoholic drinks are harmful for human body because nature of alcoholic drink are toxic which infected our lungs and stomach at first. on the hand, drunked person can’t maintain yourself to perform daily activities.
My father-in-law, a lifelong alcoholic and severely depressed, drank himself to death at age 72. The police found him on his kitchen floor, already dead for a day or two. A few hours after the body was found, the coronor told us that although the death certificate would list cause of death as “cardiac arrest”, we probably already knew that it was an alcohol overdose. Which we had in fact already suspected. It was not a surprise.
In addition to the poisoning from the alcohol itself, if someone is very drunk they may vomit and choke to death if they are passed out on their back.
I’ve seen people drunk enough for their airway to be completly relaxed and their tongue to fall back into their throat. If this happened while laying face down you might be ok, but if you were face up you would smother, no actual vomiting would have been necessary.
Alcohol is a depressant. At as high enough blood level it depresses the function of the parts of the brain responsible for breathing below the level required to maintain life.
I know someone that just recently died from drinking himself to death. He was 61.