More prayers from me. I had a slightly similar experience a few weeks back. A woman came in to the treatment center I went to with pretty severe alcohol withdrawls. However, she wouldn't let her family take her to de-tox and wasn't honest with the staff at the center. She did tell one of my friends there how she was feeling, and asked my friend to help cover for her so she wouldn't have to go to a hospital. After being there a couple of hours, she told my friend she needed to go throw up and she'd be back in a few minutes. Well, my friend waited and while and when she didn't come back, she went to check on her. She had choked on her own vomit. She was dead.
It's just so sad. The only thing we can do is remember these things when we think about picking up again. This disease kills........ in many different ways. I am glad to hear that your friend will wake up. He is very lucky to have people in his life like you who care about him enough to do something. I will pray that he wakes up a whole person and that he can find the strength to not go back.