He probably had dementia but in my opinion he most likely fell off the wagon and like he said “one drink and I’m dead” he went from “12 to 6” straight down. My cousin died of alcoholism that way. The doctor told him one more drink and he would die and he quit for 2 years and then his wife died and he hit the bottle again and he was dead within a month of her death, he had no liver left. What was bizarre was my aunt drank like a fish, a couple of quarts of vodka a week and she lived till she was 86. Explain to me how that happened. He dies at 46 she lives to 86 and she never quit.
Yes, I never heard if he died sober or not but if his liver was failing, maybe not.
It seems unpredictable who will get cirrhosis, given the same alcohol intake. I don’t understand if it’s genetics, nutrition, or what.