Orpheus
Well-Known Member
Your homebrew must really suck if you can't tell the difference!
Mistaking antifreeze for alcohol a fatal error
EMMONAK: Woman, 51, dies; 45-year-old man is hospitalized in Anchorage.
By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News
Published: January 2, 2007
Last Modified: January 2, 2007 at 01:26 AM
An Emmonak resident died and her boyfriend was sickened on New Year's Eve
after mistakenly drinking antifreeze that they thought was home brew,
according to Alaska State Troopers.
The antifreeze, which is toxic, was stored for unknown reasons in a soda
pop bottle, Trooper Teague Widmier said Monday from Bethel.
Emmonak is a dry village almost 500 miles from Anchorage at the mouth of
the Yukon River.
Both Thelma Immamak, 51, and Franklin Murphy, 45, had been drinking home
brew and thought what was in the soda bottle was just more of the same,
Widmier said. Murphy found Immamak dead about 3:10 p.m. on Sunday. Troopers
based in Emmonak investigated and didn't find anything criminal, Widmier
said from Bethel.
"(The victims) didn't know at the time that's what they were drinking," the
trooper said. "They thought it was home brew. It was in a container other
than an antifreeze container."
Murphy was able to talk to troopers and told them that he had taken just a
couple of sips of what was in the bottle but Immamak had drunk a bit more.
They wouldn't have knowingly drunk antifreeze, Widmier said.
"Oh no. They know that antifreeze will kill them," he said. But, he added,
"they were pretty drunk and were drinking anything that was liquid."
Murphy was medevacked to Anchorage. Efforts to get an updated condition for
him on Monday were unsuccessful.
Widmier said he remembers from trooper training that antifreeze has a sweet
taste and isn't something you'd immediately spit out. According to
information on an online service of the National Institutes of Health,
ingesting antifreeze can kill a person in 24 hours and also can cause brain
damage or blindness.
