Man Comatose After Drinking Drano

KALAMAZOO (Newschannel 3) - A man from West Michigan is in a coma after drinking Drano.

The chemicals in the drain de-clogger destroyed some of Allen Wells' organs, and he's already had some major surgeries to repair the damage. But Wells' family says he didn't drink the Drano out of it's bottle; in fact, he didn't even realize he was drinking the toxic solution.

Allen's brothers, Joe Diskin and Dan Wells, say Allen thought the bottle he was drinking from when he took that dangerous swig, was whiskey.

"In layman's terms, it ate him from the inside out," said Diskin.

Since early Saturday morning, Allen has been in the hospital in Kalamazoo, where doctors have already removed his stomach and esophagus.

Now his brothers are trying to get the word out about their brother's fateful story, hoping that something like this won't happen to someone else.

"It'd be a shame for someone not to understand the severity of putting something like that in something, and having someone drink it," said Diskin.

Borgess Hospital Emergency Room Dr. Bill Clegg says that the cleaner is extremely toxic.

"Drano, Liquid Drano is probably as bad as it gets," he told Newschannel 3.

Now police in Kalamazoo are trying to determine if the case is of criminal nature, whether the poisoning was accidental or intentional. Investigators aren't releasing many details, but they do say that Allen drank the Drano somewhere with in the city limits of Kalamazoo.

Even Allen's brothers don't know how or why it happened.

"There's a lot of different stories, so I guess the biggest question is the truth, and why," said Diskin.

What is clear to Wells' family, is that his two teenage girls could lose their father.

"That's the bad thing, we don't even know anything," said Dan Wells, Allen's brother. "All we know is my brother's up there (in the hospital), and any given time, he could die."

Relatives have set up an account to help Wells and his family cover medical costs. You can make donations at any National City branch under the name "Kellie Greene."

As of Wednesday night, Allen remains in critical condition.