Man Survives After Drinking Six Bottles of Hand Sanitizer
By: Marissa Brassfield
Published: June 19, 2011

A 45-year-old Sydney man is alive after drinking six bottles of hand sanitizer. What's even more disturbing than the man's gel binge is that he was in a hospital at the time receiving treatment for gastritis brought on by alcohol.
The 12.7-ounce hand sanitizer bottles contain 66 percent ethanol. After nurses discovered the empty bottles, the sanitizer-guzzling patient blew a 0.271 on a breath test. For comparison, Australia's legal blood alcohol concentration limit for driving is 0.05.
Doctors at the Sydney hospital published a letter in the Medical Journal of Australia on Sunday that outlined the bizarre binge. "It surprised us that he drank this stuff. It's horrendous. You'd think it would taste pretty bad," wrote Dr. Michael Oldmeadow in the letter. Oldmeadow indicated that within the last six months, three other patients have attempted to drink hand sanitizer to get drunk.
The doctors indicated that the man was lucky to be alive after drinking six bottles of hand sanitizer. They recommend that hospitals safeguard hand sanitizers more closely by installing non-removable dispensers as opposed to the standard wire baskets used in most Australian hospitals.