Vermont Man Who Gulped Chemical Gets Shot at Workers’ Comp

A Vermont man is getting a second change to argue that he deserves workers’ compensation after he swallowed a caustic cleaning agent he thought was Mountain Dew.

Henri Cyr was working at a milk hauling company in 2006 when a co-worker offered him an apparently abandoned bottle of Mountain Dew sitting on an office counter top. He later took it home, and after drinking two beers, drank from the bottle, suffering extensive burns to his throat and stomach.

The Department of Labor denied Cyr’s claim because he was intoxicated. But Cyr’s lawyer argued that the harm was done when he was given the bottle at work, making his intoxication irrelevant.

The Burlington Free Press reports that the state Supreme Court sent the case back to the lobar department Friday.