[camjen1]

This hits so close to home as I live in Rochester.

Has anyone heard or dealt with such a reaction when our blood sugar is high?

My first reaction when I heard this story awhile back was he was suffering form low blood sugar of course but now the paper's say he was dealing with high blood sugar.



South Bend, IN: A wrongful death lawsuit is underway in Indiana against a young driver who experienced a diabetic reaction, which resulted in the death of a wife and mother. Mary Morris lost her life while traveling North on U.S. 31 in the middle of Argos and Rochester Roads on January 19, 2008. She was struck by a motorist, Eric Jana who is twenty-seven years old. Mr. Jana had recently moved to the area and was headed from Chicago to Rochester for his sister's birthday party.

Just moments before his Jeep Cherokee hit Morris' Ford Taurus, he had veered off the road and crossed the median of the highway ending up in a ditch. Mr. Jana passed out in his vehicle from a diabetic reaction and became agitated and confused when he was approached by another motorist. The other motorist was trying to see if he needed help. Mr. Jana sped away from the scene at a high rate of speed exceeding ninety miles per hour. The motorist who had approached him called 911 and attempted to follow him, but was never able to catch up with Mr. Jana's vehicle.

Shortly after Mr. Jana landing in a ditch as he was traveling at a high rate of speed, he was traveling northbound in the southbound lane. Several motorists were able to tell Mr. Jana was heading the wrong way and were able to get over successfully and avoid being struck. About four miles into his erratic driving episode, he struck Mary Morris' vehicle. From the way they approached one another she had very little reaction time to avoid the collision.

A life flight helicopter took the Morris family and their friend along with Mr. Jana to a local hospital. Once there a toxicology report showed no presence of drugs or alcohol in Mr. Jana's system. It did reveal that he had a highly elevated blood sugar level. Generally, people with diabetes know when their blood sugar levels are out of sync. The Morris family is alleging negligence on Mr. Jana's part for causing what is being deemed the wrongful death of Mary Morris. Experts say that more traffic accidents are caused by people with low blood sugar levels or hypoglycemic sufferers than those with high blood sugar levels.

The Morris family is only trying to recover damages for compensatory rather than punitive reasons. The argument for the lawsuit by the Morris family is that Mr. Jana should have known if he was experiencing such difficulty with his blood sugar levels. According to them Mr. Jana should have had signs of illness from the elevated blood sugar levels earlier in the day and would have known it wasn't safe to drive. Some medical experts delving into the case believe there may be other issues besides the high blood sugar levels with Mr. Jana's health. His prior health history will be available to the Morris family during the lawsuit proceedings. There is a ban at this time on diabetics being able to hold commercial driver's licenses.

By Delsia Hartford

[JediSkipdogg]

Here's one just one city over from where I work...

Air Care Responds To Montgomery Accident - Cincinnati breaking news, weather radar, traffic from 9News | Channel 9 WCPO.com

The word in the police mill is the accident was caused due to a diabetic emergency. Unknown on anymore at this time. It shut down the interstate for almost 2 hours and for a period in both directions while aircare landed (I still can't figure out why they can't land on the same direction of the highway as the accident just 100 feet past it.)


Sadly for us it's incidents like this that show bad and make changes on us. Remember, it only takes one voice to create a law to effect millions.

[camjen1]

I can see restrictions being put on diabetic drivers in the future if we keep hearing stories about this happening.

It just really peeves me when we are compared to people who drink and drive. Yes, it's our responsibility but sometimes we don't have a choice. Low blood sugar affects each diabetic person differently, then there are those pesky hypo unawareness issues in some.

[adiantum]

Is there a recomended BG level to avoid driving or is it up to the person knowing their limits?
My D educator said that when I go on meds for D the licencing body must be informed, but thats the only reference to driving that Ive had.
Does this make a difference to one's insurance?

[soso]

I am really afraid of driving when my insulin is active.. I seem to do a lot of oo errr-ing counting time till driving etc... many many times I will eat a meal with no carbs if I know I have to drive around for any length of time afterwards,, then I won't have to take my insulin. Or I time my meal for when I am out, but then going straight home after, sometimes under estimate my insulin and top up when I get home... t really worries me.. Just hoe I will get more used to it. I work at home, so it's not a huge issue for me.. I keep dextrose on the dash, but I am un nerved by the whole idea...not that I have so many hypo's either, but I am not the most confident driver to start with.
Before dx when I was running high levels, I felt sort of generally under the weather, but not sure I would have felt unfit to drive...

[Stuboy]

is there actually any real evidence to suggest that he did what he did BECAUSE of high sugar levels?

Who's to say he wasn't just a LOON?

"oh, he's diabetic... it must be because of that"... Total BS... (and i dont mean Blood Sugar lol)

[Gary_W]

Originally Posted by Stuboy

is there actually any real evidence to suggest that he did what he did BECAUSE of high sugar levels?

Who's to say he wasn't just a LOON?

"oh, he's diabetic... it must be because of that"... Total BS... (and i dont mean Blood Sugar lol)

But that is why, with our condition, you really do have to be whiter than white on the road. If someone ploughs into YOU and it is entirely their fault, they will still look at your BG records and try to make out it was your fault... The question will come up if you are involved in an accident.

Regarding the minimum BG limit to drive, the DVLA in the UK (our licencing authority) state that you must not drive if below 4.0 (76). If you are below this limit, you are considered hypo and must treat it before driving. You are not allowed to drive for a 45 min period after treatment. There is no recomendation on high BG.

I find the incident in question somewhat difficult. I will admit to not being too sharp when my BG is high (just generally feel foggy and unwell) but I cannot imagine being high enough to lose my ability to tell I was going the wrong way on a 1 way street. That is crazy. I was not aware that high BG could cause mental incapacity of this magnitude. Nor, clearly, is anyone else as I've never heard any advice in relation to driving whilst running high.

Gary

[Stuboy]

which is why i think he may have just been a loon on the road!

[mark-TN]

They don’t specify what “highly elevated blood sugar level” means. Even though his blood sugar was “highly elevated” (what ever that means in this case) after who knows how much time had elapsed, this does not mean that his blood sugar was not dangerously low at the time of the incident. For example he may have gone low from a meal bolus that was a bit too high, or maybe his food had not digested yet because the meal was delayed in some way. Anyway, he becomes low (for what ever reason) and extremely disoriented causing the erratic behavior and the accident. The shock of the incident would release large amounts of stress hormones. If his meal bolus was wearing off, and with the stress hormones being released, this would set up a situation of a low level of circulating insulin. When this happens the pancreas will release glucagon causing the liver to release glycogen, raising blood sugar uncontrollably until insulin levels are brought back up to normal. A low level of circulating insulin can cause extremely high blood sugar levels as the liver holds about 100g of glycogen. In a average person 1g glycogen will raise blood glucose by about 5 mg/dl, so this could account for a 500 mg/dl rise in blood sugar from the glycogen alone. With low insulin gluconeogenesis would also occur, which would raise blood sugar even more. Like others have said, barring other medical issues, his behavior sounds much more like a low blood sugar than it does a high blood sugar. The high blood sugar explanation just does not make a whole lot of sense to me.

Mark