Patient gets drunk on sanitizer in Aussie hospital

SYDNEY – A man who drank six bottles of alcohol-based hand sanitizer while being treated in an Australian hospital for alcoholism has sparked calls for the anti-bacterial gels to be better secured.

Doctors said in a letter published Sunday in the Medical Journal of Australia that they were stunned to discover the man had downed six 375-milliliter (12.7-ounce) bottles of hand sanitizer, giving him a blood-alcohol concentration more than five times higher than the legal limit for driving in Australia.

Dr. Michael Oldmeadow at The Alfred hospital in Melbourne city said the man was lucky to have survived.

Oldmeadow and three colleagues said in the letter that at least one U.S. hospital has introduced non-removable dispensers in all its wards.