Popular liver specialist Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, who is known as "The Liver Doctor" on social media, recently shared the case history of one of his patients who was a heavy alcohol drinker and died of multiple organ failure at 39. Aimed at creating awareness of the adverse effects of consuming alcohol (even moderately), the Kerala-based doctor said that the man had "all the money in the world" but could not recover from the damage his dark rum and whiskey caused him.
"A 39-year-old guy was into binge drinking. Every month, he would have a whole week of heavy alcohol use, sometimes close to a liter daily (of dark rum and whiskey). He would then stop for 3-4 weeks and carry on his work," Dr Philips wrote on X. He added that the man had generational wealth as his father was into timber and steel sales with offices in India and abroad.
The patient, whose identity was withheld, was apparently loved by all because he would host monthly parties at his place where he was the "biggest entertainment" for his cousins and friends since he could drink the maximum amount of liquor.
Last month, however, his neighbors found him lying in a pool of vomit a few kilometers outside his house. The man's family was away and he was supposed to take care of some business back home, Dr Philips said.
"The neighbors got him inside, washed him up, and called an ambulance. His cousins and friends came. Once he regained consciousness at home, he resisted getting into an ambulance and said he was fine. He was a big guy and everyone's hero, so they followed what he decided, even after noticing that his eyes were a shade of yellow," he added.
But the same evening, the man started drinking again and invited his friend and a cousin who stayed nearby to join him. "When they came home, they saw that he was swaying on the veranda and had an unstable walk. His hands were flapping up and down, coarse tremors. He was oriented, but not alert. So they sat him down on a chair and lit him a cigarette. He could not hold the cigarette properly so the cousin brother held it for him, while he took puffs," Dr Philips said. "He was also given a glass of rum to drink. They held the glass and he was sipping out of it. After a while, the guy fell uneasy and told them he was going to sleep. And they put him on the bed and they left. The next morning he was in my ICU. Hooked onto the ventilator. Before the morning came, at home, he had vomited almost three litres of blood and collapsed on the veranda, while his neighbor who was watering plants saw it."
By the time he was brought to Dr Philips, he was already in multiple organ failure, severe acidosis, kidney shutdown, and a coma. "Hooked on to the ventilator to help him breathe, the dialysis machine did his kidneys work. He did not recover from the shock and the multiple organ failure progressed and he was full-on support. No organ system was working, machines and tubes and medications were doing their work for him," he said.
The family was called in and because they were rich, they wanted a liver transplant to be done. But it was too late. "They had multiple 'willing' donors, but only one cousin matched the blood group. He was not willing to donate because he was getting into college soon, in Canada. They had all the money in the world. But they took him away for palliation," the doctor said, adding that the man died last week after he bled massively into the brain while on the ventilator elsewhere and suffered a massive cardiac arrest.
Only his wife and two daughters were with him when he breathed his last. None of his drinking buddies were around.
Urging people to steer clear of alcohol, the liver specialist concluded, "It is only a matter of time before your life flashes in front of you unpredictably - and if alcohol features in that frame, you'll never know it coming because alcohol only makes you see what it wants you to see. You are all slaves to its false dopamine hit, while your brain degenerates under its control."
Discover the latest Business News, Sensex, and Nifty updates. Obtain Personal Finance insights, tax queries, and expert opinions on Moneycontrol or download the Moneycontrol App to stay updated!
