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The patient was saved by an injection of alcohol into his heart.
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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Everyone knows that excessive alcohol consumption is harmful to health, but as it turns out, a small dose of alcohol can have a downright life-saving effect. This was proven by 77-year-old Bristol resident Ronald Eldom.
Ronald, who suffered from ventricular tachycardia, had alcohol injected into his heart, which triggered a heart attack. However, don’t think that the doctors deliberately put the patient’s life at risk, quite the opposite – in this way the elderly man was saved.
Doctors diagnosed the man with ventricular tachycardia, which developed against the background of a previous heart attack.
Ventricular tachycardia is characterized by frequent chest pain and a high heart rate. The heart does not function as well, which results in shortness of breath, dizziness, and rapid heartbeat. If left untreated, the disease can lead to serious consequences, a more dangerous stage - atrial fibrillation, which can cause cardiac arrest.
"Ronald came to our hospital after he developed symptoms of an abnormal heart rhythm caused by a scar on his heart caused by a heart attack," says cardiologist Tom Johnson.
Doctors tried to treat Mr. Eldom with traditional methods. They used medication and electrical ablation to get rid of the muscle that was causing the irregular heartbeat, but it didn't work, so they decided to try a rather radical and unusual treatment - ethanol ablation.
This procedure is performed very rarely, and the doctors who treated Eldom never used it in practice.
Ethanol ablation is a method in which a catheter is inserted into a vein in the groin and then guided through the vessels to the heart. This way, doctors can determine which part of the heart muscle is causing the abnormal heart rhythm. This makes it possible to restore normal heart rhythm.
A small amount of alcohol gets into the heart, which triggers a controlled heart attack. Dr. Johnson says that if they hadn't used the ethanol ablation, Ronald would have died. The risk was high, but it was worth it.
The doctors were able to achieve a result, and thanks to their efforts, the muscle area was affected by alcohol. This problematic area was then removed without problems, and the elderly man's heartbeat returned to normal.
"I am very happy and immensely grateful to the doctors who did everything to help me. If it were not for them, I probably would not have survived," says a grateful Ronald Eldom.
Just three days after the operation, the patient was discharged home in excellent health.
Such operations are very rare, but in Ronald's case it was necessary, because his life was at stake. Only ten such operations have been performed in recent times.
It turns out that alcohol is not always evil; sometimes it can be used to save human lives.