truesee's Blog

A man who drunk 375ml of hand gel had a blood alcohol reading of 0.271 per cent. Picture: AP Source: AAP

• Man downs hospital hand sanitiser
• Drinks equivalent of 20 stubbies of beer
• Man "lucky to be alive" after gel binge

A MAN who drank six bottles of hand sanitiser while being treated in hospital for alcoholism has sparked calls for the antibacterial gels to be better secured.

"We have these bottles all over the wards and they are used constantly," Dr Oldmeadow told AAP.

"We need to have it because infection control in hospitals is critical and you can't have doctors and staff walking in and out of patients' rooms without protecting against the transfer of bugs.

"What we want to achieve is to bolt a container to the wall so it can only be refilled but can't be removed from the wall."

Hand sanitiser bottles are commonly held in wire baskets attached to hospital walls and can easily be removed.

In a letter published in the latest Medical Journal of Australia, Dr Oldmeadow and three of his colleagues said at least one hospital in the US had introduced non-removable dispensers in all its wards.

"Experience at our institution over the past six months suggests that consumption of alcohol-based hand sanitisers by inpatients may be an increasing problem in Australian settings - we are aware of a further three patients who have consumed these products while at our institution," they wrote.

In the case of The Alfred patient, nurses discovered the near-empty sanitiser bottles while cleaning his bed.

He had been admitted to hospital three days earlier and suddenly became drowsy for no apparent reason.

The man admitted to drinking the sanitiser and agreed to undergo a breath test.

"It's obviously an uncomfortable time for a withdrawing alcoholic but he managed to find a way around it," Dr Oldmeadow said.

"But it surprised us that he drank this stuff. It's horrendous. You'd think it would taste pretty bad."

False accusation led to raid on home, 22 stitches

Deputies were responding to murder report

By MEGAN RYAN
HOUSTON CHRONICLE

June 17, 2011, 10:02PM

Brandwynne "Brandie" Prespentt finished work at 3 p.m. June 10 and ran some errands. On the other side of town, a dog assigned to a Precinct 4 constable's deputy was attacking her husband, Travis.

The incident, which led to an arm injury requiring 22 stitches, was the climax of a bizarre sequence of events that began when the couple's neighbor, Tamara Denise White­side, phoned in a false report accusing Travis Prespentt of pistol-whipping and strangling his wife and dumping her in the back of his car.

Now Whiteside is in jail, Brandie Prespentt is alive and well, and the Prespentts are threatening to sue the constable's office for what they call an unprovoked attack.

"If my children hadn't been with my mother-in-law, what would have happened?" Brandie Prespentt asked. "And they never even apologized."

Panic and confusion

While Travis Prespentt was cleaning his porch he noticed patrol cars downstairs, but he didn't think they had anything to do with him.

When he went in for a beer, police had knocked down his door and ordered him to put his hands up. Prespentt said he did as they said, but deputies still sicced a dog on him.

As the dog chewed on Prespentt's arm, he said, the officers demanded to know where "the female" was.

Prespentt, assuming they meant his dog, first tried to tell them that she was in a cage on the porch. Then he realized they were looking for his wife, and shouted that she was at the grocery store.

At one point his sister phoned the apartment. When officers answered, Prespentt's sister immediately called his wife and told her to call her husband. Again, police answered the phone.

'I was just freaking out'

After Brandie Prespentt explained who she was, an officer told her about the call they had gotten from her neighbor.

When she asked to talk to her husband, she said he was crying and screaming, "This dog chewed my arm off!"

"The dog threw me on the ground, and I just laid there watching the dog chew my arm," Travis said. "I was just freaking out."

Assistant Chief Deputy Mark Herman said deputies had to go to the apartment because of the serious nature of the neighbor's call.

When the deputies arrived, they identified themselves and warned that they had a dog, Herman said.

"If we hadn't gone, it would have been negligent," he said. "These things happen."

By the time Brandie Prespentt made it home, she said, her husband was covered in blood. He was taken to a hospital, where he received stitches on his arm and treatment for minor scratches.

Travis Prespentt said one of the deputy constables continuously accused him of punching the dog while he was being attacked. He has denied striking the dog, protesting that he is an animal lover.

Whiteside was charged with giving a false report and failure to show identification.

Travis Prespentt has not been able to go to work for the past week, which has hampered his ability to provide for his family and pay their hospital bills, he said.

"They just went on a rumor, and I think that's uncalled-for," he said. "I've never experienced anything like this in my life."