A housewarming party that took place in a village of the northern Vietnamese province of Thai Binh last week has turned to a near-tragedy after seven people were hospitalized with alcohol poisoning.
So serious was the poisoning that as of Sunday, only three of the victims had recovered to a stable condition, according to doctors at the Thai Binh General Hospital.
The incident took place on Friday night, when people attending a housewarming party in Trang Quang Village were treated to some ‘homemade’ alcohol.
Around 15 minutes into the party, the two men who had consumed the most alcohol started to feel dizzy and eventually lost consciousness at the table.
Five others sitting at the same table displayed the same symptoms a few minutes later.
The seven poisoned men were then immediately rushed to Thai Binh General Hospital.
The two patients with the most severe symptoms were later transferred to Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi.
Doctor Dinh Quang Kien from Thai Binh General Hospital said the patients had lost consciousness as well as their vision and were unable to move their limbs at the time of hospitalization.
It is not uncommon to hear reports of people being poisoned by ‘clean-skin’ alcohol in Vietnam – the way alcoholic drinks with no label, no information on their origin and no nutritional guide are named.
This type of ‘homemade’ alcohol is widely available at dirt-cheap prices, and never fails to find a market.
A similar incident involving methanol-tainted ‘homemade’ alcohol occurred in Hanoi in March, and other cases have been frequently reported in local media.
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