Alcohol Detox – The Other Side of the Story

It’s a story repeated in emergency departments (ED) all over the country. A person is taken to the hospital for alcohol detox and they may or may not want any medical intervention. Treatment might be available for their disease, but they refuse.

A young man was brought into the emergency room with a blood alcohol level of .423, and according to his boyfriend he had been drinking vodka for two days and had not eaten. He didn’t want treatment and was abusive to the medical team. He was a quite nice guy, didn’t look like the type of person who could explode at any moment and launch into an expletive-laden tirade. But the staff soon found out that he was completely out of control, cursing the nurses and when the doctor entered the room for the first time, he spit on him. The police were called.

The ED staff did their best to stabilize the situation and a plan was initiated to get his into detox and then transferred to a local alcoholism treatment facility. His wife was appreciative and tried her best to cooperate with the staff and encourage her husband to comply with the treatment, but it was not to be. His disease had progressed to the point where nothing mattered to his but the alcohol. As he put it when asked if he wanted to quit drinking, “No, I love this stuff. It’s the only thing that’s legal.” His alcoholism had taken over total control of his life. Perhaps there was some remnant of his old self still intact, but he was hard to love. (more…)