Ronald Aldom with his wife Pam

A man was saved from death after doctors gave him some alcohol, according to press reports.

When Ronald Aldom developed ventricular tachycardia, or an unusual heart rhythm, the doctors decided to treat it in a little unconventional way.

Doctors gave him a pure alcohol injection or pure ethanol, by a catheter through the blood vessel connecting the groin to the heart, according to a British newspaper.

For Ronald Aldom, 77, of Portishead in England, the ethanol caused a “controlled heart attack”, and actually killed the part of his heart muscle that was problematic, according to the newspaper.

The doctors decided to try this approach after several unsuccessful conventional treatments. “The ethanol ablation”, as it is called, has only been done a few times in the United Kingdom.

The procedure saved the life of Aldom, making his heart beat regularly again. “He would not leave the hospital unless something was done,” Dr. Tom Johnson, a cardiologist at the Bristol Heart Institute, said. “There was no other option.”

Johnson said Aldom is doing “much better”, and that he is now out of the hospital.

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