A man who was forced to leave his high school teaching job over a DUI charge has since learned that he has a rare medical condition in which his body essentially brews alcohol in his gut.
Mark Mongiardo, of Estero, Florida, first noticed symptoms of his auto-brewery syndrome (ABS) in 2006 when he worked as a high school teacher and coach in New Jersey.
It was during this year that colleagues of the father of two started making complaints that they could smell alcohol on his breath despite him never having drunk any such beverages at work.
Mongiardo was ultimately placed on paid administrative leave despite maintaining that he wasn't drinking on the job.
"I would never do that. I'm a teacher," Mongiardo said to ABC 7 reporter Kristin Thorne. "It was very concerning to me. I really had no idea what was going on."
Despite having committed no wrongdoing, he felt forced to leave his job, relocating to Long Island with his wife and two children to start a teaching job over there.
"I really could just see it in everyone's eyes," he said of his former colleagues. "They just really didn't believe what I said when I was saying I hadn't been drinking."
It all came to a head back in 2018 when Mongiardo was pulled over by police and charged with drunk driving. Despite failing the breathalyzer test, he hadn't had a single drop of alcohol. Sadly, he lost his job over the charge.
"That’s when I lost everything. I lost everything that somebody could lose," the former teacher - who currently works at Target - told ABC 7. "I had to sell my house, I had to sell my car. I couldn’t get a job in education, I couldn’t get a job at a grocery store.
"I had pending felony charges. You know, I was facing prison time for two DWIs when I had not been drinking," he added.
Mongiardo recalled how his mother started doing her own research based on the symptoms of her son's condition - and that's when they stumbled across ABS.
In his desperation, Mongiardo decided to seek help from Staten Island-based gastroenterologist Dr. Prasanna Wickremesinghe, one of the few medics who specializes in ABS. The doctor ultimately diagnosed him with the condition.
"I started hysterically crying because I really felt that I had found the answer," Mongiardo said.
Wickremesinghe believes ABS is caused by antibiotics, which cause disorder to the flora in the gut and allow fungus and yeast to take over. When an individual with ABS consumes carbohydrates or sugar, the gut ferments alcohol.
"I've seen them go three times the DWI level in two hours," Wickremesinghe said of some of his patients.