A new service in Las Vegas is a tour bus that cruises up and down the Strip treating people for hangovers. If you've ever had a bad hangover (I still remember them from my college days) you can imagine how nice this would be. I guess some people actually go to emergency rooms for help with hangovers, so it saves a lot of money and resources.

From today's Las Vegas Review Journal:



"Everyone wants a ride on the Hangover Heaven bus.

"We couldn't believe there was something like this out there and we decided we had to try it," said Lijewski, who was in town with co-workers for their Wyoming company's sales meetings and awards dinner. Their boss paid the bill for his group's hangover treatments.

Seven people lounged on white leather cushions in the front of the Hangover Heaven bus, a 45-foot-long tour bus converted into a comfortable office lounge. The outside is wrapped with a heavenly scene of white clouds and blue skies and the hangoverheaven.com logo.

Inside, bags of intravenous saline solution dangled from hooks on the ceiling; the cabin was filled with the raucous laughter of people who were clearly having a good time. Few emergency rooms are that jovial.

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Dr. Jason Burke, a local anesthesiologist and founder of Hangover Heaven, checks on patients Saturday inside the bus in Las Vegas. The patients from Wyoming and Colorado were in town for a sales meeting. JUSTIN YURKANIN/LAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

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Two emergency medical technicians, Stacy Kreitlow and Debra Lund, moved between patients, taping IV catheters, giving post-treatment instructions and ensuring the patients were comfortable.

Wearing a white, sexy nurse costume with white fishnet stockings and white knee-high boots, medical assistant Crystal Willis added a real Vegas touch to the atmosphere.

She ran the cash register, served refreshments and assisted the others. Burke monitored the group, which received the Hangover Heaven treatment called "Salvation."

Regular price is $200, but Saturday's patients were charged an introductory rate of $150. It included two bags of saline mixed with vitamins and two prescription drugs, ketorolac, an anti-inflammatory also known as Toradol, and Zofran, a medication often prescribed to pregnant women and chemotherapy patients for nausea. (You can get it without the Toradol for $130, $90 on sale.)

Dr. Jason Burke regularly uses both drugs on patients after surgery. Once, when he had a hangover, he tried the mixture on himself. It made him feel so much better, he wondered whether there was a way to market it as a hangover treatment.

About six months ago, Burke began formulating his business plan for Hangover Heaven. While the majority of responses have been positive, Burke has faced some criticism for his treatment.

Prescribing "banana bags," or saline bags mixed with vitamins, is not a new way of treating patients suffering from hangovers. But mixing in the ketorolac and Zofran is not common, says Dr. Daliah Wachs, a local family practice physician and radio talk show host. Ketorolac can cause kidney failure in people who have poorly functioning kidneys. Zofran also has side effects, including irregular heartbeat.

"When I was an ER physician, we were really nervous about giving people Toradol if we didn't know their renal status," Wachs says. "Dr. Burke, he's kind of gutsy to do this. If the Toradol and Zofran weren't in it, this would be a heck of a lot more safe."

However, Dr. Timothy Beckett, owner of Valley Anesthesiology Consultants, says both drugs are safe and present little risk to people receiving them for hangovers.

Hangover Heaven is offering a service that can potentially help crowded emergency rooms, Wachs said. When she worked in the ER, she often treated people who came in with nothing more than hangovers. Those people take up time and space that could be devoted to true emergencies, she says.

But the amount of time it takes for a Hangover Heaven treatment concerns Wachs. It usually takes a couple of hours to administer a bag of fluids, Wachs said. Hangover Heaven cuts that down to about 45 minutes. The body can become overloaded on fluids, which can cause heart failure or cause fluid to fill the air sacks in the lungs of at-risk patients.

Burke said his intake questionnaire screens for patients who are not appropriate for his hangover treatment, including pregnant women, people with high blood pressure, kidney problems, diabetes or other metabolic conditions."