drunks

zudy · Sep 18, 2002

You win!! The closest I can come in our er is 650. This was one of our FF, he went into DT's at 400. What a sweetheart.

prn nurse · Sep 18, 2002

Do you know how that BAL calculates in your lab to the persons' blood alcohol level? In our lab , he/she would be 6.7. Legal limit 1.0

I have seen high 300's as the highest. e.g. 375 serum BA=3.7 . In my state, a BAL of 1.0 is considered intoxicated and illegal. Many states now have 0.8 as the illegal level.

3.7 and still driving !!

A 6.7 , I would think would be a long time alcohol abuser.

Or one of these death-defying attempts by 21 year olds to chug the whole bottle........... and they frequently die of alcohol intoxication.

What was the condition of your patient and what were the events that brought him/her to your ER?

AlaskanRN · Sep 19, 2002

to see a pt in the 400's is pretty typical in our ER...don't remember any 600's...but then again...you get to a point that you start worrying about the other direction...low instead of high...if you see a pt you know with a BAC of

bestblondRN · Sep 19, 2002

Originally posted by erdiane
maybe this is more of an er type poll question, but here goes: What is the highest blood alcohol you have ever seen (dead people don't count)

We had one a couple nights ago......672!!!

anybody top that?

About 12 years ago, we had a patient come in to the ER half-dead (not totally dead so I guess he counts :-), smelling like a combination of sweat, acetone and alcohol. He reeked! Anyhow, I can't believe he survived it, but his BAL was almost 1100. Yes, that's right......he was intubated and treated for big time metabolic acidosis and rhabdo (which set in over the course of several days). He didn't actually wake up from his alcohol-induced coma for almost a week.

I can't believe some people can really put away so much, nor can I believe that they don't either respiratory arrest or vomit and aspirate and die. Absolutely amazing :rolleyes:

cactus wren · Sep 19, 2002

I worked in an ER in a community with a high amount if etoh. We had a list of walkie, talkies who regularly came in with 700`s.Had a running pool to guess bal`s............seemed funny at the time...........I was very young..........:imbar

st4304 · Sep 19, 2002

I admitted a young man once in the wee hours of the morn with a BAL over 700. He was walking (had to hide his clothes and shoes to keep him in room) and talking (seemed pretty coherent surprisingly) and actually was very proud of his BAL -- for that night was a personal best! (Long time abuser, very sad really.)

I get buzzed on half of a wine cooler. I had ETOH poisoning once after a New Year's party and was hospitalized for 2 days, and sick for a week. I had 6 vodka collins! That's it! Is that sad or what?

Sherri

teeituptom, BSN, RN · Sep 19, 2002

Howdy yall

from deep in the heat of texas

Back when I was young and was up in rural OKLA. It wasnt unusual to see some of the regualrs and some of the indians come in the 600s atall. Some of the Indians would walk in and be fully AOx 3 with BAC in the 600s and Bld sugars up around 1500... Got to where you dont notice how high it gets but watching when it drops was more important.

doo wah ditty

l.rae · Sep 19, 2002

high 700's

zudy · Sep 19, 2002

We used to bet on BA's a lot. I got pretty good at it, bought my supper a few times.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Sep 25, 2002

1050, doubled checked by lab, and the guy was still talking though not coherent.