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How Long Does Alcohol Stay In The Body?
Question: hi I am a 52 yr old woman, I recently got into a car accident I sustained multible injuries all on left side 7 fractured ribs 5 thru 11 lacerated spleen pulled hip out of socket they were able to reset hip.so inspite of all that I also had 4 1/2 drinks 2 1/2 beers and 2 apple hard ciders all in 7 hour period when I got to hospital my blood level count says a 230 and I don't understand why. is there any explanation for this I heard when you have a spleen injury that it can raise your blood levels is this true or possible I am a social drinker I don't drink every day or every weekend and I know that is all I had so im am very confused what else would cause blood alcohol levels to be so high
Brief Answer:
ok.... this is about right....
Detailed Answer:
Depends on the seven hour, the size of the person and liver function; bearing in mind that more alcohol is absorbed and it stays longer and gives a higher level in women than men. Then hard ciders vary totally. Often they are under 4% alcohol, but if it is a mead-cider it can be over 10%. It can be two 12 ounce portions of 8% alcohol in the cider. And if it were mostly near the end of the 7 hr period or towards the beginning part. Rule of thumb as you already appear to know is one drink metabolized per hour, Your point is that if it were 7 hrs from the first 1 or 3, wouldn't it seem like the level should be about a 60 to 80.
So, in summary, yes, your math runs right according to the textbook and there is a lot of other factors that change the numbers. You would expect about 1/3 of the level you showed.
http://www.insure.com/car-insurance/blood-alcohol-calculator.html
age isn't taken into account in this.
Other medications like flagyl, yeast medicines, grapefruit and a few others can inhibit metabolism of alcohol.
Diabetics make their own alcohol under unusual circumstances and this can be detected.
ok.... this is about right....
Detailed Answer:
Depends on the seven hour, the size of the person and liver function; bearing in mind that more alcohol is absorbed and it stays longer and gives a higher level in women than men. Then hard ciders vary totally. Often they are under 4% alcohol, but if it is a mead-cider it can be over 10%. It can be two 12 ounce portions of 8% alcohol in the cider. And if it were mostly near the end of the 7 hr period or towards the beginning part. Rule of thumb as you already appear to know is one drink metabolized per hour, Your point is that if it were 7 hrs from the first 1 or 3, wouldn't it seem like the level should be about a 60 to 80.
So, in summary, yes, your math runs right according to the textbook and there is a lot of other factors that change the numbers. You would expect about 1/3 of the level you showed.
http://www.insure.com/car-insurance/blood-alcohol-calculator.html
age isn't taken into account in this.
Other medications like flagyl, yeast medicines, grapefruit and a few others can inhibit metabolism of alcohol.
Diabetics make their own alcohol under unusual circumstances and this can be detected.
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
It was actually 2 1/2 beers from 3pm until 6pm then 2 cider drinks from 8/30 until 10 pm accident happened at 11pm plus I did not eat since 2 pm so you don't think my blood level could change due to internal bleeding from spleen fractured ribs can stress from trauma cause blood levels to rise? my weight is 159lbs but again they say at 230 blood count that I shouldn't have been able to walk could blood work get contaminated for some reason or another
Brief Answer:
doesn't seem likely
Detailed Answer:
for the lab to have a mistake on this. Furthermore they might have done more than one level and seeing the pattern would confirm it.
The mathematics of it are pretty straightforward, the alcohol gets in and then it gets out. There can be a lot of reasons for there to be a delay in absorption and this might have occurred. What symptoms someone feels varies tremendously with alcohol and many people do not feel impaired at a 230. Smaller numbers are not impaired at a 230.
can their be a lab mix up and names messed up, values messed up, etc. well... theoretically anything could happen. This is quite rare. If there were multiple values from more than one draw then this becomes even less likely if more than one reading gave the same result.
But then, there is this....
http://www.voiceforthedefenseonline.com/story/falsely-elevated-ethanol-results-using-hospital-enzymatic-assay-blood-testing
the only way I've ever seen blood alcohol tested is by the inaccurate enzymatic way. There's a simple chemical reaction that runs based on how much alcohol there is in the blood to run it. The problem is that lactic acid runs it just as well. Lactic acid can be in blood due to shock from severe injury. It can also be due to the stuff they are putting INTO you from an IV but frankly that is less likely unless they did the dumb thing of taking the blood out from where they are putting it in. This is rarely messed up. I have seen it. but it is rare. The other readings on all other tests are also messed up if this occurred (for example, how much blood you had left in you would seem to be very small because the sample would be diluted by the IV fluid).
Finally, it is not possible that an injury will change the amount of alcohol in you.
Let us think of a BOTTLE of alcohol. Breaking it doesn't make more alcohol. Breaking ribs, losing a spleen etc does not make more alcohol and doesn't change the levels. It may produce shock and lactic acid production but it won't change the alcohol level.
doesn't seem likely
Detailed Answer:
for the lab to have a mistake on this. Furthermore they might have done more than one level and seeing the pattern would confirm it.
The mathematics of it are pretty straightforward, the alcohol gets in and then it gets out. There can be a lot of reasons for there to be a delay in absorption and this might have occurred. What symptoms someone feels varies tremendously with alcohol and many people do not feel impaired at a 230. Smaller numbers are not impaired at a 230.
can their be a lab mix up and names messed up, values messed up, etc. well... theoretically anything could happen. This is quite rare. If there were multiple values from more than one draw then this becomes even less likely if more than one reading gave the same result.
But then, there is this....
http://www.voiceforthedefenseonline.com/story/falsely-elevated-ethanol-results-using-hospital-enzymatic-assay-blood-testing
the only way I've ever seen blood alcohol tested is by the inaccurate enzymatic way. There's a simple chemical reaction that runs based on how much alcohol there is in the blood to run it. The problem is that lactic acid runs it just as well. Lactic acid can be in blood due to shock from severe injury. It can also be due to the stuff they are putting INTO you from an IV but frankly that is less likely unless they did the dumb thing of taking the blood out from where they are putting it in. This is rarely messed up. I have seen it. but it is rare. The other readings on all other tests are also messed up if this occurred (for example, how much blood you had left in you would seem to be very small because the sample would be diluted by the IV fluid).
Finally, it is not possible that an injury will change the amount of alcohol in you.
Let us think of a BOTTLE of alcohol. Breaking it doesn't make more alcohol. Breaking ribs, losing a spleen etc does not make more alcohol and doesn't change the levels. It may produce shock and lactic acid production but it won't change the alcohol level.
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Chakravarthy Mazumdar
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