Buzz
We constantly hear how alcohol destroys lives, but there are rare occasions when it actually plays a role in saving them. Here are some examples...
10. Using Wine to Combat Wildfires
In 2007, devastating wildfires ravaged Southern Greece, claiming over 60 lives and leaving many homeless. When flames threatened one farmer's property, he fought back with an unexpected tool: wine. By filling a fertilizer pump with 300 liters of homemade wine, George Dimopoulos spent over 17 hours battling the blaze and spraying his home to reduce its flammability. When asked why he didn’t flee, George explained that staying put was safer, as many neighbors had perished in their escape attempts. The reason he couldn’t use water was that the nearby borehole pumps had stopped working due to a power outage, leaving them useless.
9. Whiskey Restores Vision to Blind Man
After a four-hour drinking spree, Denis Duthie went to bed. But upon waking the next morning, Duthie discovered he had gone blind. At the hospital, doctors revealed that his binge had interacted with medications he was taking for diabetes, resulting in the creation of formaldehyde in his system. Normally, this condition is treated with a dose of ethanol, but the hospital's supply was running low. In a stroke of ingenuity, they sent someone to a nearby liquor store to purchase a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue, which they administered intravenously. Five days later, Duthie regained his sight and immediately vowed to reduce his drinking.
8. Beer Rescues British Prime Minister
As the conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Alec Douglas-Home was far from popular with the country’s left-wing crowd. In 1964, a group of students from Aberdeen University decided to kidnap him. After locating his accommodations during his visit to Scotland, the students acted swiftly—knocking on his door and politely asking if he’d mind being kidnapped, as long as it wasn’t too much of a bother (they were British, after all).
Unable to turn down such a courteous request, Douglas-Home asked for a moment to pack, during which he offered a beer to each of his would-be captors. They agreed and, in the end, abandoned their plan to instead get drunk and pose for photos.
7. Tequila Rescues a Young Boy
On his way to school, 13-year-old Evan Hamilton was dared by his classmates to drink eight shots of tequila in quick succession. Thinking it was a brilliant idea, he downed the shots with the enthusiasm typical of a teenager eager to impress. Hours later, he passed out in class.
He was rushed to the hospital for alcohol poisoning, and during a routine CT scan, doctors discovered a small brain tumor. Fortunately for the boy, he had chosen the perfect week to drink himself senseless, as the tumor was detected and removed before it could become life-threatening.
6. Whiskey Saves Titanic Survivor
In case you missed it, the RMS Titanic tragically sank in the Atlantic Ocean after striking an iceberg in 1912. Of the 2,435 passengers and crew aboard, only 705 survived. One of those survivors was Charles Joughin, a chef. On the fateful night, he instructed his crew to distribute food and supplies to the women and children in the lifeboats before retreating to his cabin and consuming several glasses of whiskey. When the ship went down, Joughin found himself floating in the freezing water. Thankfully, the alcohol in his system helped keep him warm for hours until he was eventually rescued and pulled into a lifeboat.
5. Doctors Use Alcohol to Trigger Heart Attack
In 2007, an elderly British man named Ronald Alsom was diagnosed with ventricular tachycardia, a rare type of heart arrhythmia. Typically treated with defibrillation or medication, these methods failed to work. Fortunately, the doctors had a clever solution: they used a catheter to inject a small dose of ethanol into Mr. Alsom's heart, triggering a heart attack that caused the problematic area of heart muscle to die. This groundbreaking treatment succeeded, and Mr. Alsom lived to see another day.
4. Beer Saves a Man From an Avalanche
While driving through the Tatra Mountains in Slovakia, Richard Kral's car was buried by an avalanche. Initially, he tried to escape by smashing the windows and digging his way to the surface, but he quickly realized that the snow would flood the car before he could even make any progress. Kral then had an unconventional idea. He had several dozen cans of beer with him, so he drank them and urinated onto the snow outside his window. After several days, he managed to melt enough snow to dig himself out. Four days later, rescuers found him, with sore kidneys and possibly the world's worst hangover.
3. Vodka Used to Treat Antifreeze Poisoning
In 2007, an Italian tourist in Australia fell critically ill after ingesting antifreeze in a suicide attempt. The treatment was simple: administer a large amount of medicinal alcohol. However, the hospital had run out of supplies. The ingenious solution? Purchase a case of vodka and administer it intravenously into the man’s stomach. Over the course of three days, he was given the equivalent of three drinks per hour, totaling more than 200 drinks in all.
2. Vodka Helps Man Survive Two Deadly Falls
Alexei Roskov was having a drink when he jumped off the balcony of his fifth-floor apartment. Normally, such a stunt would end in disaster, but in this case, he survived with barely any injuries. The alcohol had loosened his muscles, which helped him absorb the impact. After returning upstairs, he was met by his understandably furious wife. Annoyed by her constant worry about his well-being, he jumped again—and survived once more.
1. Drunken Arrest Saves Man From Volcano
In 1902, the small Caribbean island of Martinique was devastated by the eruption of its volcano, Mt. Pelee. Thousands of people perished, and only three survivors were reported, one of them being a man named Louis-Auguste Sylbaris. On the day of the eruption, Sylbaris was arrested for being drunk and disorderly, an offense that resulted in him being thrown into a solitary confinement cell. The cell was a half-buried stone room with no windows, just a small slit in the door for food, light, and air.
The next day, the volcano erupted, and Sylbaris's cell was directly in its path. However, the strong construction of the cell helped protect him, although he suffered severe burns from the blasts of scalding hot air. He was found four days later and was pardoned for his earlier crimes.
