Vodka Causes Man to go Blind, Whiskey Saves His Sight

When alcohol is distilled there are three parts the head, the heart and the tail. The heart is the drinkable alcohol, the head is methanol which becomes formaldehyde and the tail is basically alcohol with too much water content.

Of course when drinking the part you definitely want to avoid is the head with the 'bad' alcohol which causes blindness and other health problems. Unfortunately for one man in New Zealand his vodka caused him to go blind .

In celebration of his parent's 50th wedding anniversary 65 year old Denis Duthie was drinking vodka to celebrate, but the blindness that followed ruined the good times. Denis said, "I thought it had got dark and I'd missed out on a bit of time but it was only about half past three in the afternoon."

Instead of going right to the hospital Denis tried to sleep off his blindness, but awoke with no sight. When he finally ended up at the hospital doctors realized the vodka had a bad interaction with his diabetes medication. The treatment? Whiskey.

By feeding whiskey into his stomach with a tube the ethanol five days later he regained his sight. Doctors say to combat the effects of methanol poisoning ethanol is a 'well established treatment'. As for Denis he hasn't had a drink since adding, "I'll be taking it easy."