Having just read a little of the posts above E&H I wanted to just add, without wanting to upset/scare you at all..
Dh's brother was only 38 and died of Alcoholic Liver Disease. It was the area I specialized in nursing for 5 years. He was a heavy social drinker, but probably not more than a huge amount of the population, throughout his late teens and 20's.
When his Mum died, suddenly, he turned to drinking more, then cut back again. Then his dad died, again incredibly suddenly about 18months after his mum.From then, he increased his drinking a fair bit, but still was no where near an alcoholic.
IN the last 18months or so, he started drinking every single day, his intake increasing to 2L of cider a day. No spirits ever ( for some reason, people think that if they don't drink large amounts of spirits they'll be ok...)
He had a huge gastric bleed 2 weeks ago, was encephalopthic ( when toxins the liver cannot break down and process, due to damage, cross into the brain causing confusion - one of the most common reasons for a first admission with Alcoholic liver disease) He ended up ventilated within 24 hours, and died a week later from multi organ failure...
I am only telling you this,not to upset you at all, so i'm of course very sorry if it has, but more, perhaps for you to tell your DH that it can happen to anyone, and young men are just as at risk than those who've drunk heavily all their lives. Its so sad. Scott didn't know what damage he was doing, thought that he'd have many many years before he had to address it. He was very unfortunate, but as I say, its indiscriminate who ends up so effected by it. HOrrible disease, alcoholsim and the end stages of ALD. really nasty. If every one knew what it could potentially do to them, I'm sure that they'd never drink over the weekly units... The irony being for DH and his sister, that their Dad was a alcoholic all their lives, and died of something unrelated, septicemia from a cock up in an operation- when he had an autopsy, there was no damage at all to his liver.
I know this has been long, and I can't stress enough how sorry i'd feel if I've upset you at all. Please just tell him about Scott? It might might help a little. Even if he does't think he has a problem, if he knows it could happen to him, it might just make him stop and think a little...