People with diabetes often seem intoxicated. If you have never seen it before you would never know.
The first time I saw it a veteran officer locked up a guy who was having problems with his diabetes. The guy seemed extremely drunk. Here he just had low blood sugar.
He was in our holding cell for about an hour and we all thought he was smashed.
The last time I had one it was a guy who had problems, lost control of his pick up truck and hit a telephone pole. He seemed intoxicated.
From that one experience I figured he may be diabetic and called rescue. Sure enough.
Another REAL problem is police departments wanting cops to taser first, ask questions later.
Oh well.
I was a passenger in a car with my sister several years ago, she was diabetic, but her diabetes had been under control for years. I had never seen anyone in a diabetic crisis so imagine my horror when she suddenly seemed really drunk,almost to the point of passing out- and we were traveling through a construction zone with the concrete barriers on both sides in city traffic. She had the presence of mind to tell me I would have to drive- like now. I had to drive from the passenger seat until we made it through the zone and I could pull over. Probably the scariest few moments of my life.
I had a friend who was away in the Navy, when his mother's housekeeper called him and told him his mother had become a heavy drinker, and was out of it much of the time. He called and asked me to check on her, drinking was out of character for this lady. Thank goodness I had had the experience I did with my sister, because this woman did appear to be in a drunken stupor. Anyway I got her to the Dr, and she was diagnosed with diabetes. The Dr was amazed that she had not gone into a coma at some point becuase her levels were so far out of whack.
I would think LE would be trained about medical situations that can make things appear to be something else, maybe this officer was not paying attention when that was discussed.
L
This is my worst nightmare scenario every time my diabetic son gets in the car...
This type of situation is exactly why people with medical conditions like diabetes should wear medic alert bracelets.
I was at the scene of an accident also where a guy hit a telephone pole. He was definitely drunk, or so it appeared. Funny though, there was no smell of alcohol either. As it turned out he, too, had had a diabetic attack. I would have bet anything the guy was drunk.
My daughter has seizures. After a seizure, she is disoriented and confused for some time and cannot speak coherently. This could easily be taken for drunkenness or drug use.
I remember a case where we stopped a man for driving erratically--he'd sideswipped a car right next to the police substation at 8:33 AM.
We brought him in, and got him to blow on the breathalyzer.
0.00 BAC.
We got him to the hospital as fast as we could--we figured that anyone that out of it without any booze had a serious problem. Severe hypoglycemia, and he was right as rain after treatment. (Kind of embarrassed about hitting the parked car, though.)