Let’s Talk about Law Enforcement...
This was sent to me by a loving wife, frustrated with the lack of education she saw in the law enforcement officers she had been exposed to over the years. Now, this is not to say all law enforcement officers know absolutely nothing about diabetes. This is merely an opportunity to realize that everyone should have general knowledge about the disease, especially individuals whose professions often include emergency situations. The immediate signs of a diabetic’s blood sugar being in a hypoglycemic state, or “low” often resemble signs of being intoxicated or hostile. Therefore it is extremely important not only for law enforcement to know the difference between being intoxicated and hypoglycemic, but also for a diabetic to be responsible and let law enforcement know immediately that they are diabetic. Whether this means verbally expressing or simply wearing a medical tag, it is as much our responsibility as it is theirs. I am extrememly thankful for all the law enforcment we have and we did to help them by being easily identafiable as a diabetic! But cases like this can and do happen where diabetes has a mind of its own...
“My husband of 28 years is a Type 1 Diabetic. He is 54 years old, in great shape and a working professional. In the past year his diabetes has changed, he now gets fast plummeting lows with no warning or symptoms. This has caused all sorts of problems. All of them not totally unavoidable and many living with diabetics will understand. The first incident happened as we were driving home from Boston, we stopped in Sturbridge to pay the toll and all was seemingly fine. Immediately after exiting the toll booth he began driving really fast and erratic. At first I thought he was just in a hurry to be home, it had been a long day in the rain. Thankfully it was not raining back home. I asked him if he was alright and he immediately became defensive and argumentative, red alert for me, he was crashing fast. I nicely asked him if we could pull off the next exit to switch driving.... What happened next was a living nightmare, he took off driving really fast, switching lanes like in a video game. I was beyond scared, so not his personality. He was low and not getting oxygen to his brain. He could no longer speak to me but had a really scary look. I finally thought I had him getting off the next exit, at the last minute he pulled across out of exit lane and into the fast lane going 85! What could I do, we were going to die. Still I continued to beg him to pull off the next exit, 72 went by. Still begging and pleading. Exit 71 is approaching, he looks at me, blank scary eyes.... darts from fast lane going over 80 into the exit lane. Thankfully this is a long straight exit ramp. I am screaming to break, please, please slow down. We stopped halfway out into the cross road. I jammed the car into park, took the keys and jumped out. Got juice and opened his door. He was not getting out or drinking the juice, he maintained he was not low. Two State Police Cruisers now are flying down the ramp at us, we are in the far left of lane, hazards on and me trying to get him out. I tell the approaching officer that my husband is a diabetic and very low but also extremely aggressive and argumentative. He approaches not believing me but thinking he is a drunk driver. I am sure there were many on the highway that day calling 911, it was so scary! The officer saw my husbands tester sitting in his lap and the juice I was giving him. He asked him what he was going to do? I said I was trying to switch to driving. My husband didn’t want to get out. But finally the officer was able to convince him to let me drive. We were allowed to leave with me driving. That next week my husband was put on the Omni-Pod to help fix these plummeting lows. We started to be better maintaining with just the normal middle of the night bad lows but during the daytime he was good....
Three months later it is the holidays, a week before Christmas. He volunteers to do a quick trip to the local grocery store, one he used to be Store Manager of when we were first married. He is still like the mayor there. I was busy and not paying attention to how long he was gone, thought he ran into someone he knew and was chatting. He returned home 1.5 hours later. I knew when he walked in he was really low. He said, “I really screwed up.” I asked, “where are the groceries?” His reply, “there are none.” What? I test his blood, 20. He drove home? What is happening. Then he starts to tell me after drinking juice that he was arrested for shop lifting! I am really confused. I get in the car and drive to the Supermarket, the police officer is still there. I stop and ask him what is going on? How did you just let my husband drive a car at a blood sugar level of 20. His response to me was that he was an EMS and my husband was fine, they gave him some juice in the managers office after they arrested him and he showed them his pump. They NEVER treated this as a medical emergency. He had used the self check and bagged his groceries but never paid just walked out. So they were watching him in the store because he was just packing bags not scanning anything? Needless to say I was angry. Happy Holidays.
We got a lawyer, had to go to court the week of Christmas. We had letters from the doctors, his blood glucose readings for that entire day from his monitor. We waited to be called that morning in court. Our lawyer went up to discuss with the prosecutor. He would not even look at the letters or monitor readings. This was not a health issue but a theft. Again, the Prosecutor knew diabetics and this is not possible. The lawyer tried to argue but it was going nowhere. My Husband would have to do 3 days of community service in inner city. No phones or electronics allowed, and no food. Lunch would be provided, this was not going to go well. So he had to take 3 vacation days, and report for community service.
His self-esteem was in the dumps, he was depressed and thinking he was stupid. I was supporting him 100% and so angry at the lack of education in our world. Type 1 Diabetes is an entirely different disease than Type 2. It is not a ‘fat’ persons disease. The women running the office did allow him to keep his monitor and juice. It was a very demoralizing 3 days for him. He since has written letters to the manager, district managers and above at the Supermarket and no one will call him back or set up a meeting with him. He should be able to shop in the local grocery store!
We got the Dexcom Monitor for him, it is attached to him 24/7 and sends readings/alerts and texts to anyone he allows. Currently it is me and his brother. Things seemed to be getting better, still the late day and night crashes but always at home. Did I mention he works out a lot. He has gained 20 lbs in the last 2 years and is working to get it off. He swims 3-4 times a week and goes to a club to lift and do cardio once a week. A month ago he had another time of lost? I could not reach him he wasn’t answering his phone, I called the pool where he swims. They were not answering the phones? No emergency way to get them? He was 25 minutes from me, my sister lives in that town. I called her and she drove there, he was sitting in the car with it running but not moving. I had to talk her through what to do, as I was driving there. I told her there was juice in the car, she said it is empty. So he had tried to fix it, but not enough. A week later he was at the cardio club and called to tell me he would be home by 7pm. I have to know where he is going and his timing. This day I lost track of time as I was busy, it was 7:20 and he was not home and not answering. I called this club. They were nice, probably thought I was a nagging wife, and the girl told me he was on a bike and appeared to be resting. I had his blood levels. He was not resting. She said she would watch him. I told her I was 20 minutes away and someone had to help him now. I said you need to talk to him, he will not be able to respond, he is diabetic and really low. She hung up and I drove over as fast as I could. I arrived to see cops and an ambulance. He was so low! They needed to give him 2 IV’s. It took two large men to lift him off the bike. Education is necessary! This set of EMT’s did not even look for a pump! So until I got there they had just given him glucose gel, but his pump was still giving insulin! This day the pump was on his upper thigh so not visible. But they should be trained to look! He is diabetic, he was wearing his medical alert! So when I arrived I found his monitor pack and stopped the pump. Then they gave the IV’s. My husband is a professional and travels for his job. He has been strip searched at the airport twice as the TSA people do not know what a diabetes pump looks like. Now he paid the $85 to be precheck so hopefully this won’t happen again. We need everyone to be in the know. If you are dealing with the public. It should be taught along with CPR. I would love the world to know that Type 1 Diabetics are dealing with a lot and sometimes cannot predict what will happen or the low comes on too quickly.”
- Loving Wife of a Type One Diabetic
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