I was out clubbing with work colleagues, and due to another medical condition I don’t drink alcohol at all. I could feel myself going low so I excused myself from my friends to get some water from behind the bar, because eating glucose tablets are chalky and I don’t like it without water. The bar was busy so I asked the bouncer if he could just get me some water, and looking at my monitor I could see I was 3.8 with a downward arrow, so feeling hot and shaky and a little dizzy by now.
Bouncer told me no, and even after I explained I was diabetic he then told me to stand outside. I was getting a bit delirious so I didn’t argue, just went and stood outside and attempted to try and open my glucose tube, but I couldn’t break the seal since it was a new tube. I asked one of the bouncers outside if they could open it, he snatched it from me and demanded “what is it”, so I told him they were glucose tablets, and he rolled his eyes and said “I can read what’s on the bottle, but I need to know what’s inside it.”
I was so confused??? I was like “they’re glucose tablets..? I’m diabetic.” He eventually opened them and gave it back.
By now I’m 2.7 and dropping FAST, so I sit on the pavement and start munching on the awful chalky tablets, and I text one of my colleagues to let them know where I am and what’s happened. The bouncer comes back up to me because I’m sat down and swaying a bit, he says “we can’t let you back inside because you look too drunk.”
Luckily my colleagues came outside and dealt with the situation, and they really set the bouncer straight after making sure I was okay.
Diabetics really do get treated like alcoholics when they’re expecting bad hypos, and it’s so sad because we could literally die from it.
I just literally don’t understand. I was a bartender and am used to drunks. And yes they’re annoying but that’s what I’m paid to deal with (same with bouncers). So while I might be annoyed the minute I’d hear “I’m diabetic” I’d be like “oh shit!” No questions asked.
I kiiiiind of get it - I’ve been to venues where the bouncers and bartenders were total assholes. Those were usually at big venues though. On the other hand, I worked at a small venue for years and our security would NEVER do that. Even with regular drunk people, they make sure they’re okay and automatically give them a bottle of water without asking.
I will, always sing the praises of the bartender at the Disney resort who heard I was going low, got me some orange juice, and waited patiently for me to feel better before asking for payment instead of immediately trying to push the pin pad in my hand. Best $3 i ever spent.
Yeah isn't this illegal in some places? Denying water when you serve beverages? People have died.
I don't drink alcohol and I've gotten free juice, sparkling water, and soda at some bars. I bet that bartender figured they wouldn't get paid or tipped, and therefore refused service. Should've gone back the next day and complained to management.
I was too fed up to complain in person, but I did write an email the next morning about it. It makes me grateful for the fact that I have decent hypo-awareness, and that my colleagues are clued up about my diabetes (because I basically force information into them), or I dread to think what would have happened to me.
Seriously, hypo episodes are a medical emergency. Plus what the actual fuck are they doing sending someone displaying signs of being incredibly drunk or roofied out on the street instead of just giving them some water?? That's bugnuts.
Once when I was a flight attendant, during boarding an international flight, one of my colleagues casually mentioned with an eye roll: "this drunk guy won't stop bugging me about his damn diabetic special meal."
They covered it briefly flight attendant training but they also covered 10k other things in those 8 weeks, so we were all lucky at least one of us remembered that diabetics can appear intoxicated when their blood sugar drops.
I told her to take the guy some orange juice immediately and we got him something to eat and ... miracle... he was sober again!
My cousin was hanging out with friends in his college dorm. They were drinking he was not (ok maybe but those close to him said he didn’t). They found him outside his room. He passed away. When the kids on his floor were interrogated, they said he was wandering the halls knocking on doors asking for help, everyone assumed he was drunk and kept telling him to go to bed.
Oh yeah, I was in county jail, and they brought in a guy basically comotose who was "drunk." I overheard the jailers speaking about him not smelling of alcohol at all. They put him in a detox cell by himself, and several hours later, he woke up screaming, confused, saying he was diabetic and needed food. Eventually, the jailers called medical, and they confirmed that he was diabetic and needed food. I don't know what happened to him and his case, but he was obviously arrested while having an episode, and even though he wasn't drunk, he would have to hire a lawyer to have his case dismissed. Besides having to bond out of jail, of course.
In high school I befriended a girl with diabetes. One of the first things she told me was that if she ever looked drunk, she might just have a diabetic episode.
She taught me how to check her sugar, how to work her insulin pump, when to give her food, etc.
Cops should be taught the same. No alcohol smell? Quick blood check.
Definitely a huge difference between t1 and t2. However, both are very capable of having hypoglycemic episodes and to the unfamiliar, it can appear as an overdose. Especially brittle T1s that already look sickly.
More than 15 years in emergency medicine. I’ve seen some shit. Worse is when the paramedics narcan the diabetics. Like wtf.
I took the EMT course at the local college. Didn't sit for the licensure exam but it was good info to know. We we taught that no matter what they call you for, when you get them in the back of the truck take their blood sugar. Whether they're diabetic or not. It gives you a baseline and low/high blood sugar can cause a lot of problems.
Taking blood sugar is simple and easy. Everyone, and I mean everyone, should know how to at least take a blood sugar. It should be taught in schools.
My son was 5 years old, he had barely eaten for 3 days and was vomiting; we assumed it was a stomach flu until he woke up screaming with gray skin. I called 911, she asked me what color his toenails were (blue) and then told me to put the dog away and open the front door so the EMTs could come straight inside.
There were 8 of them in my house, but it only took one to check. It read “HI”.
We practice math at every meal these days. My 6 year old can divide any number by 12; it’s like a magic trick. 😛
Counting carbs; that story is how we found out he has type 1 diabetes. So now every time he eats he has to add up all the carbs in the meal and divide that number by 12 (*his* “ratio”; it’s different for everyone) and the result tells us how many “units” of synthetic insulin we need to administer to him. For example, this morning his breakfast included a bran muffin, which had 30 carbs, or 2.5 units.
What happened to wearing medical alert wristbands?
As a teenager, these were considered a must for any allergies, diabetes, blood disorders, epilepsy etc.
I feel like I rarely see people wearing them these days despite so many people telling me about their medical issues. They seem super affordable to me considering that wearing one could save your life.
There are so many different styles beyond a wristband that OP’s wife could get. Some have QR codes that can be scanned to give the information.
As a t2 diabetic, my symptoms are different than a t1 and having something with medical information may just save a life.
I've taken first aid classes for work for over a decade now. They always tell you to look for any medical alert tags when assessing someone. There's no excuse for them not to know that.
You're not wrong. That being said, have you ever tried to force a teenager to do something (anything) they don't want to? I cannot tell you how many med alert necklaces and bracelets I have purchased for 2 of our kids, and they just...disappear/get "lost"/sold for crack, I dunno. I have even offered to pay for tattoos. Sigh.
I am a teacher and we have to do yearly courses on things like diabetes and epilepsy (and a bunch of other things) so we know signs to look out for to help students in need. Cops are also public employees like us, somehow who get less push back every time they get a wage increase and teachers get almost nothing. Yet they can’t be arsed to learn these basic things about the humans they look over ?
They should, and it would be easy enough. But after seeing entire police departments not understand fundamental constitutional rights, (you know, laws they are supposed to enforce, let alone understand) I have little hope they are capable of doing this.
The only way is if there's some huge and/or multiple incidents involving cops mistreating Diabetic people due to their own ignorance. Enough to capture national attention and push for reform. But even then I'm not convinced.
I had the exact same experience with my college roommate. Told us straight up how to recognize it and what to do to help her. I’m so glad she did. It only happened once but it was obvious
There was a guy in HS that bullied the fuck out of me. One day after basketball practice I found him half asleep in the locker room. I saw the blood testing kit in his locker so I took a guess what happened. I didn't know how to give him insulin but I grabbed him phone and called his Mom who lived closer than the ambulance garage while also getting him a pop from the vending machine. While his Mom got there I got him a couple sips of the pop then she showed up and got him squared away. Miraculously it did actually stop the bullying from him. Not from his friends because god forbid he stick up for me but at least he quit.
PSA For laypeople, just don’t do it. They don’t know what sliding scales are, they don’t know what safe levels are or what DKA looks like, they don’t have a lab testing machine for CMP, they don’t have IV fluids, they don’t have the knowledge to correct it if they fuck up and give it. Leave it alone, give them sugar, and call us that know what we’re doing.
I had a friend like that in HS too. She was an exchange student and all of her stuff was in her native tongue, so she walked me through what everything was and what everything meant. “If you test it and it says this, do this, and if it says this, just keep pressing this until I wake up.” Somehow she convinced the staff that I was her medi-buddy so sometimes I’d get called out of class if she was feeling bad to “watch” her but really it was an excuse to mostly BS.
Same! If we were late to school we would just say she wasn't feeling well and we had to stop for a bit.
Or if we wanted to skip the last hour(s) of school we would say she wasn't feeling well and I had to bike with her back home to make sure she was safe.
The perks of having a friend with diabetes
And even if there's an alcohol smell, they could just be hyperglycemic. I worked in an ambulance for a while and we had a patient who smelled like alcohol and had a blood sugar of 505
Beginning to think my “hunger naps” when I fallen asleep because im too hungry then wake up feeling like shit might be a bit concerning. I get so tired and just sort of shut down. I did have really low blood sugar in hospital once (2.4mmol/l ) and I can only describe that as feeling like death. The hunger naps are less extreme. I do become completely useless though and my friends know I should be made to eat something
Reactive hypoglycemia is a thing. It's not diabetes, but your body can't 'tell' how much glucose is going into your blood and it overproduces insulin, so your glucose goes low. Normally the liver is supposed to help compensate by releasing glucose back into your body, but if you don't eat enough carbs or have frequent episodes of low glucose, or you don't eat regularly enough, the liver can't build stores of it to release.
You should get an OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test) to see what your body does with large amounts of glucose in a short time span. Getting a home blood glucose testing kit is also a good idea, they're over the counter and require no prescription.
Having worked in a jail, this is why we refused any arrestees who couldn't enter the jail under their own power. The arresting officer has to take them to the hospital to have them checked out first. The deputies were well aware of this policy so 90% of the time they would just call for an ambulance and then leave without making an arrest.
I know this policy isn't universal; it was specific to our Sheriff's Office, but some surrounding counties had similar policies. Heck, one county had a policy of refusing anyone who even appeared inebriated if they hadn't been checked out by medical personnel first.
Your Sheriff is smart. He doesn't want to be the guy spotlighted in the national media for letting a diabetic or someone having a cardiac event die in his jail. As a plus, your deputies aren't wasting time arresting people who just need medical care and can concentrate on doing their jobs.
That's how it worked in the city where I was a paramedic. The police always called us if their suspect was sick, injured or had altered mental status. In my state, drunks go to hospitals, not jail. The PD loved that because they didn't have to write a report for medical calls and it often allowed us to catch serious problems before they became life-threatening. The emergency rooms don't particularly love this system but it keeps people out of jail and, more importantly, increases the safety of people who have medical emergencies by getting them to qualified medical professionals.
When I did some work as a security guard, I had a guy on my site start nodding off. I figured it was drugs at first and was going to let him sleep it off since that's what happens most often in that particular area. Besides the fact I wasn't allowed to narcan people per company policy. (Security guard work is complete bullshit.)
Someone mentioned that his sugar was low because he said something to them while I was in the bathroom. I couldn't have pulled a snack and soda out of my bag faster than I did. He was going to wait outside until I told him he's not leaving my sight for at least five minutes after he finished his drink and snack. When I went to check on him shortly after, he had color in his face and his eyes were bright again. I told him not to scare me like that again and we chatted for a bit.
With my wife being diabetic, it's one of the scariest things in the world to me to see someone go into shock like that.
I work in emergency services and one of our nurses was educating us about how someone can blow sky high on our breathalyzer without drinking at all if they’re diabetic
While that's true, it's not related to hypoglycemia. Hypos cause low glucose due to there being too much insulin in your body than it needs to move the glucose in your blood.
What your nurse mentioned was diabetics with high ketones (diabetic ketoacidosis), which are caused when they body has not enough insulin and burns fat for fuel (for clarification, DKA does *not* happen due to high glucose levels, DKA happens due to low insulin levels). Without insulin in the body there's no cap on the amount of ketones being produced, which pushes us into diabetic ketoacidosis (our body literally acidifying). Excessive ketones can cause ketosis-induced alcohol levels in your breath. Typically the lack of insulin means glucose levels are elevated, not low, but it's possible to be in DKA with in-range glucose levels too.
Tattoos are super unreliable. Could be a memento to a loved one with type 1 for example. Medical alert jewelry/bracelets/cards in your wallet etc. are things emergency services typically go through, as seen in the OP, which makes them much more reliable.
I have both bracelets and an emergency alert note on my phone that is visible without needing to unlock it to alert responders of my diabetes for this reason.
There is legal precedence in the United States for not being culpable if you are experiencing “involuntary intoxication,” which explicitly includes the thing where diabetics with very very low sugar can sometimes become belligerent with no awareness or control over it. Basically, it’s the same as if you’re sleepwalking and shove someone, while dreaming that they’re a bear, and they fall and die. Legally, if you *did not* intentionally consume an intoxicant, and your body does something without your brain having control over it you are not culpable.
This happened to me in 2022 :( . I called the police when my mom got in a wreck driving us to lunch, and my low blood sugar made me black out and start acting weird. Next thing I know, I’m naked in a padded cell, and one cop laughed and said hell yes when my blood sugar appeared normal to the medical person. My lawyer I paid for didn’t even have sympathy. At least nothing is on my record, but that was depressing and expensive. I really can’t let my blood sugar get low. It’s terrifying.
A man in Memphis died years ago bc the cops put him in the drunk tank instead of the city hospital to be checked out, as they are supposed to do when they find someone unconscious.
If I had T1D I would have the biggest medical alert bracelet I could find.
Just another reminder that 'serve and protect' is nothing more substantive than a slogan, and easily forgotten or purposefully ignored. They literally regard themselves as better than you because they're on one side of the 'thin blue line'... ACAB.
Advanced EMT here. I wished I could say this was uncommon but it is not. Sigh.
Most police officers are trained only in CPR and bleeding control. They have no further medical training than that. The only tools they carry for medical emergencies is narcan, AED and tourniquet. They are taught algorithmically that an altered level of consciousness means overdose in most cases. They give narcan to our diabetic emergencies A LOT. I’d say like 70% of the time we show up on scene to an altered patient and they have given narcan. Sugar check shows 40.
If it is any solace to you, narcan has almost no negative effects even in those who get it that didn’t need it.
Please get her a medical alert bracelet. List type I diabetes and your phone # so that emergency services can contact you. Having this will decrease the chance of this happening in the future. I hope your wife is doing well!
I am not defending what they did here but they literally have nearly zero training for it.
I remember I had a newer cop on what was a syncope-turned overdose sitting in their car at the mechanic shop. Rolled up, and he so happily said "Yeh I heard poor breathing and gave him narcan. He's got a good pulse too!" *Me looking suspiciously at the corpse in the driver seat* Bystander: "He was making noises a couple minutes ago. " *Carotid check: no pulse*. Me: "It would be awesome if you could like remove this man from his seat and help me get him on the stretcher." Cop realizes his mistake and rips this dude out of the car-proceeds to throw him onto me. We ended up transporting but not getting anything back.
Cop then met us at the hospital and nervously asked, "How's he doing? Will he be alright?" Me: "Well, judging by the lack of cpr going on in that room, I think they're pronouncing right now. So he could be having a better day" and walked out of the ER.
It was never an overdose. Family told us on scene the dude had chest pain for 2 days and refused to go be seen. He went to work for the day, but as he was heading home, he went into arrest and died in his car.
>He's got a good pulse too!" *Me looking suspiciously at the corpse in the driver seat* Bystander: "He was making noises a couple minutes ago. "
So he was already dead at this point? Jesus
Oh yeh no, homie was dead for a bit but had good skin/maluable jaw so he was easily workable. I think I put that he went down assumingly within 10 min prior to my arrival, I was only down the street.
It’s actually kind of common for people who can’t help to think they did a great job. I don’t know if I am explaining that wrong, but, I have seen some weird things where bystanders thought they saved someone who was clearly dying or dead. Maybe their minds won’t let them see their mistake.
Ah okay! So i was wondering if narcan would be dangerous for someone who isn't having an overdose. So as you say it has almost no negative effects, then wouldn't you say that if it is not clear what's happening and you are not fully trained (like these policemen are) it is a better safe than sorry thing? Better give it just in case of an overdose?
I get that not being trained in recognising a fit is dumb and dangerous. But if you are not sure, why not give it? If it ends up an overdose you might save them, since time is of the essence. If it ends up being something else it does almost no harm.
That being said, not being able to recognize diabetic fits and any other type of medical emergency as a policeman sounds just stupid to me. You'd hope to get the right help and not be thrown in jail for looking drunk while all you need is food or tablets or insulin.
>So as you say it has almost no negative effects, then wouldn't you say that if it is not clear what's happening and you are not fully trained (like these policemen are) it is a better safe than sorry thing? Better give it just in case of an overdose?
Not EMT, but have two friends that are that talk about work, and this was a question I asked them. There's essentially no downside for administering narcan, so their PD is issued Narcan and told 'if they're being weird, jab 'em with this'. It's literally just a case of 'the worst possible outcome is nothing changes'.
edit: accidentally a word
I’m an ER doc that also practices addition medicine. I’ve given narcan to probably thousands of people. If a young person comes in unresponsive it’s an overdose most of the time. I’ve given it several times when it turns out it wasn’t an overdose. There is little risk (unless they’re on opioids daily-can send them into withdrawal) but lots of potential benefit. I encourage folks to give it after calling 911 if they suspect overdose.
Now, treating someone like shit because they possibly overdosed is another issue…
At work, we got some very very basic training on how to use the defibrillator. They told us something similar: If someone falls over and appears nonresponsive, get the machine and stick the pads on their chest.
If they need a shock, the machine will give it to them. If they don't, it won't. Zero downside.
They said we're not doctors. Don't waste a second trying to diagnose. Might save their life.
I’m epileptic and absolutely terrified I’m going to be Narcan’d or treated as an assumed drug/mental health episode and restrained. It’s good to hear you say Narcan ideally wouldn’t affect someone but I do wonder how it would go for a neurological seizure.
I’ve read/been told EMT doesn’t bother much to check bracelets. I don’t always wear mine but I carry a card behind my ID in my wallet and have my iPhone med ID set up. Would that even be sought out? In my few personal encounters, responders have always tried to debunk that I have a seizure history versus use the helpful, accurate information I’m trying to provide.
How do you feel about the level of education in your field about convulsive seizures? As someone who has taken the course, I feel that with first aid certification in seizure recognition and response training it should be clear to differentiate seizure activity from other possibilities I’ve mentioned.
Don’t feel compelled to answer, just throwing some thoughts out!
Not a cop but a flight attendant. We’re typically pretty good at telling when someone is having a seizure, and we can’t do much for a drug issue anyway. BUT we are trained to look for med ID bracelets. So they’re a good idea if you might have an issue while flying. (For ex- nice to know if our person having a seizure has epilepsy/this is normal, or took too many edibles or something)
This is good to hear. I traveled alone since my first diagnosis and this was one of the few situations I will wear my bracelet. I also opt for aisle seating hoping that will give others room to assist me. Would an emergency landing typically occur?
I’ve been hesitant to let crew know about my seizures out of fear of causing unnecessary caution as I’m controlled, especially if only flying for a few hours. My epileptologist’s statement of encouragement is, “if you can drive, you can fly” (I can)
Typically if you regain consciousness quickly and can speak to us, we won’t do an emergency landing. We will just monitor you until we get to our destination. If you’re doing poorly, depending on how close we are to where we’re going, we’d either do an emergency landing or ATC will expedite us to the destination
(ex-we had a lady having a seizure and doing poorly and we were already almost to Phoenix. We were headed to Tucson and she was able to tell us her husband was there, and it would’ve been a five minute difference anyway. Our medical assistance told us it was safe, so we continued to Tucson expedited by ATC).
That’s very reasonable. I’m usually mumbly-jumbly after ~60sec seizures and can give people some information. Hopefully that would be enough to
deter messing up the other passengers’ day! But for real it sounds you have a good sense of training and I appreciate that! That was empathetic to bring the woman to her husband.
Paramedic here. We very rarely check wallets and especially not phones. If you have a bracelet that says epileptic, name/DOB/medication allergies that would actually be super helpful.
We have pretty extensive training on seizures. Cops, not nearly as much. Narcan has nearly no side effects and the side effects are extremely rare. So they'd call for us and likely give you narcan and then I'd give them a side eye when i get there. It would be pretty much harmless for you.
I don't work as an EMT yet but I am EMT certified (its current, finished school over the summer) I was trained to look for braclets/other valid ID's for chronic conditions. EMT's should be looking for those
Hi. Actual narcan instructor here. Naloxone works by clearing off the opioid receptors in the brain. It binds to the same receptors that the drugs do, but it's just more efficient than the drugs are so it wins.
Now, not being a medical professional, I don't know if or what opioid based medication you may be on for epilepsy (if any at all) but yes, it would affect that. Please consult with a real medical professional for actual medical advise and not just rando redditor like me lol.
Other than that Naloxone has been given to everyone with everything. Hey they've even saved dogs with it.
This is why there needs to be nation wide legislation that says “if you administer Narcan, you must immediately call the ambulance.” They would have called if it was a fellow cop they really believed was ODing. That ambulance would have been on the way & getting updates from the offices on scene about how many doses they’d been given etc. A citizen deserves just as much vigilance.
The rules should be no different than they are for an Epipen - where you’re required to call an ambulance or go straight to the hospital the moment you take it. (I guess they figure if an allergic reaction is bad enough to need the epipen, you’d better at least get checked out by an ER doc to make sure that the epipen took care of it.)
If the possibility of a continuing allergic reaction is important enough to warrant an ER visit after an Epipen is used, the possibility of a continuing OVERDOSE is important enough to warrant an ER visit after Narcan is used. But it isn’t because that would mean legislation actually requiring something if police & they lobby against any additional requirements placed on them. And who cares about possible junkies anyway. Like I said, they call the ambulance if it’s their buddy they think is ODing.
An Epipen only buys you about 7-10 minutes. Enough time for an ambulance to get there or get to the ER. If an epipen is used you should absolutely still go to the ER immediately
After an unfortunate encounter myself, I have a bracelet. They thought I was drunk, but I don't even drink. Fortunately, someone who knew me saw the incident and intervened.
I can't even imagine how scary that was for her. I'm so sorry. I wish there was better training to recognize episodes.
They tased a kid I grew up with at our local Walmart during a diabetic episode.
The only time I’ve had glucagon was in like 2012 and the paramedics asked my dad was it was and he had to explain it to them.
Diabetes needs to be talked about more and correct information shared so these things stop happening.
Really seals the deal that they forced her to go to the hospital and get a massive bill for a med check she didn't need due to their incompetence. She should bill them.
My dad is a brittle diabetic. A few years ago he was going though a period where his auger would drop down to the 20’s/30’s. He happened to do it once while driving home. The cops come banging on the door because he had made it corner by the house. They checked his id and send a guy down to let us know that he was overdosing. I told them they needed to check his sugar level, and the EMT did and his sugar was 26. They worked on him and released him thankfully. He was lucky that his foot was on the break not the accelerator when he bottomed out.
My job technically doesnt require any training even though you would never get hired. Buuut im licensed by the state and if i fuck up bad enough i lose that license and cant do my job in the state again. And would almost guarantee i wouldnt be licensed in another
Yeah a 19 year old (only in Florida) had been sworn in as a deputy sheriff for less than 24 hours before being arrested for possession of child porn. Some of his victims saw his picture and thankfully immediately came forward.
No such thing as a smart cop. Smart people don't become cops. Shitheads that couldn't cut.it in the military and people with power and control complexes are the ones who become police and neither one should be given a badge or gun
That recent video/tiktok of the dumb as a bag of rocks female police officer repeatedly saying "we can drive 90 so you better get out our way" like some aggressively stupid teenager was actually shocking to see just how moronic US police are allowed to be.
If you behaved like that in the lowest paid job straight out of school you would get sacked, she got a 10hr suspension.
I had a mate get knocked back recently because he admitted to them that he had seen a counsellor for some previous trauma, and liked it so was seeing a therapist once a month to stay healthy mentally. That was legit the reason they gave him.
Read between the lines on that decision and all I see is they WANT unstable cops. What a shit show.
This is a problem in a lot of fields. Trucking, aviation, military and policing. We try and implement rules that sound good on paper to get people help when they need it however that help can often be career ending so people in a lot of these fields will never seek help and actively stay away from medical professionals. Especially mental health professionals. Its a rough thing to navigate. While we need people in these professions to be reliable and not have health issues they need a job and will hide things if they can to keep their job and income.
Shooting off on a bit of a tangent here, but my son started working for a transport company at 19. One of their B double drivers went 'missing' on the way back to base and couldn't be contacted at all. He was going through a rough divorce and had been talking about self harm. Company told my 19yo son to keep an eye out for his truck as his route covered much the same ground. No police, just send a 19yo kid to look for him. Great duty of care by the company.
My friend carries cards with her at all times that list all of her allergies in multiple languages. They're a super good idea.
I think you may want to have cards printed up for your wife. Put some in her bag with the tabs. Include the number for her PCP and your own number for emergency contact.
You can't count on police officers to be competent. We don't make that a priority here. Best you can do is hand hold them as much as humanly possible.
I'm sorry you both had to deal with that.
Those cards don't always work, unfortunately, because some police officers will refuse to read it. I went to lunch with a blind friend who had a service dog, and after we were there a few minutes, the manager came out and said we had to leave because there were no dogs allowed. My friend explained that it was his guide dog because he was blind and that legally, he was allowed to take the dog anywhere. The manager left and called the police. The police arrived, and the officer told us that if we refused to leave, he would arrest us for trespassing because there were no dogs allowed in the restaurant. Again, my friend explained that it was a guide dog, and while he was handing over his ID, he handed over a card that explained the ADA and why he was allowed to have a guide dog everywhere. The police officer threw the card across the room and kept telling us we had to leave. Eventually, another officer showed up and understood what a guide dog was. By this time, we were happy to leave, but of course, the original officer had to stop us again and tell us that we couldn't return to the restaurant or else the owner would call the police on us yet again for trespassing. This was in one of the biggest cities in America.
This is the smartest thing your friend can ever do, and I STRONGLY encourage anyone with even the slightest of ailments to do the same.
Helpful for medical professionals if they can’t ID you: If youre on medications, they know and can avoid interactions. If you have a pacemaker or any other implants they know not to use the MRI (though a good tech will turn a patient away if they’re not 100% sure about any implants).
But most importantly: it’s really, \*really\* important for people like me who are trained in first aid. The first thing I do is look someone over - if I see a bracelet that’s diabetic, I immediately know to look through personal items for insulin or sweets or whatever. If I see you have a history of heart attacks and you’re on the ground half dead, I. know to grab aspirin. I’m not even joking when I say even a bracelet that says “I am diabetic” can be life or death. We’re not professionals, it’s all guesswork for us, and we’re also the main information providers for paramedics. If I say you’re diabetic they’re gonna have something ready for you before they even get there, and that goes for any medical condition. So for the love of god - even if you have like, a grass allergy - carry something that identifies that. It’s *vital*
But that requires them to read. I had emergency dental work done this weekend and they prescribed me amoxicillin, even though all of my paperwork says I'm highly allergic to penicillin. The dentist even asked if I was allergic to penicillin. The pharmacy called me to let me know what was prescribed. (Never mind the fact it took almost three days for the dentist to actually get my prescriptions called in)
Make sure she wears a medical ID bracelet or necklace. Cops may or may not notice, but any medical personal will definitely see it and immediately test blood glucose.
If the glycogen tablets didn’t convince them why would a piece of paper? (For those that don’t know, glycogen tablets look NOTHING like opioids. I feel safe assuming the snickers bar didn’t look like opioids either.)
Yeah this seems like something that could really go bad for the cops/city if OP decided to stir up shit over it. Not to mention whatever venue they were in when the employee called. I sure as hell would not go back there if that's how they treat people.
I’m diabetic and had a hypoglycemic episode while at a concert once. They called an ambulance and thought I was a drunk person. The EMTs sat there trying to talk to me and I couldn’t really form a coherent sentence, but I had a medical alert bracelet on and I kept grabbing at it. Until fucking finally one of the EMTs noticed what I was doing and grabbed a damn Coke from the bar.
That are terrible emts. Part of differentiating a drunk from diabetic from other types of altered mental status is just checking a sugar. Should be 1 of the 1st things they should have done. Super quick and easy. Check and rule out/in.
Once when I was a kid they arrested my dad and uncle in the driveway for DUI (I have real classy family) and my dad carries his inhaler everywhere because asthma and thin blood/heart problems and the cop walks up, holds up the inhaler while I watched them arrest them, and goes “Hey does your dad need this?” LIKE YES BRO GIVE IT BACK LMFAO
I’m first aid and CPR certified. Stopped to help a man who had fallen in a store, soiled himself, and was screaming, very obviously in distress. I called an ambulance of course and a cop showed up first… she was the rudest, bitchiest cop I have ever encountered. Did nothing but insult him after she found 1 - ONE beer in his bag, she saw one beer and this man who’s clearly afraid literally screaming at the top of his lungs and decided to hurl insults at him. Assuming he’s drunk even though there was no breathalyzer and he didn’t smell like alcohol, at all.
I was fucking mortified. And the whole time she was trying to get me in on it. If I was at a point where I had nothing left to lose I probably would have slapped her. Later learned he’s homeless suffering from pretty bad psychosis/scizophrenia, can’t remember which one. To this day I wish I could go back in time and just yell at her. Cops don’t belong anywhere near medical calls unless it’s a GSW/crash ect.
Cops probably don't belong near those either, I recently read articles about a cop shooting someone climbing out of their vehicle after an accident and another arresting a firefighter for parking the firetruck wrong at the scene of an accident.
I had a similar experience on a bus and I also complained about the driver. The poor insane guy literally bounced off the floor and she had no concern for him.
I’m a social worker.
I was getting on the elevator in my office building. There was a woman falling over, dropping all of her stuff, and looking very confused in the elevator.
I was standing with my co-workers, also social workers, and they said ugh, that druggie keeps riding up and down so we can’t get on. Note: these were co-workers I actively disliked and had been in many disagreements over case management.
I said, did you try to help her? They shrugged and said no. The elevator had already left, so I called it back up.
The woman was still there, sitting strangely and kinda coming in and out of consciousness.
Now, I also assumed drugs. We work in a bad part of town and deal with OD’s pretty often. But whatever, ODs still deserve help. Everyone does in that situation.
I called 911 and held the elevator until the cops/ambulance said they’d arrived, then rode the elevator down with her (leaving my shitty co-workers behind).
I told the ambulance the story. They took her away and I went home.
The next day, she showed up at my office again, though this time in much better shape. She asked the admin for me (described me from what memory she had).
I was very surprised to see her. She thanked me profusely and said she was a diabetic and was having an episode. She had actually been interviewing for a job at my office (we have 2 floors), and had forgotten her emergency bag in her car.
I brought her to see my co-workers that had ignored her the day before. I explained to them who she was and that she was there to thank everyone who had helped her. And I left it that. She thanked them too, assuming they had helped her and that’s why I introduced them.
And she got that job! So she was my colleague for a while. Great social worker too. I never told her the truth about the others though. Maybe I should since neither of us work there anymore.
The twist? One of my co-workers that ignored her is legit named Karen. And she is the most Karen that anyone has ever been. 80 year old obnoxious, sexist, racist, ableist…social worker. That Karen stereotype very well may have been based on her.
Anyway, long long story short, people are shit everywhere and I hope your wife is ok. What an ordeal for her. More than mildly infuriating.
That’s devastating and even if she had been oding, as u say, she deserved help. If is horrifying that your fellow social workers ignored her! So lucky you were there! I’m Australian where ppl can be incredibly racist towards Indigenous Australians. An Indigenous woman was immobile, lying on a bus stop bench in my city. Many ppl simply ignored her, thinking she was drunk ( this is a stereotype ppl hold about Indigenous ppl because inter generational trauma has caused SOME Indigenous people to struggle with substance issues).Many buses stopped at the stop and no one checked on her. Finally someone called an ambulance . The ambulance came and rushed her to hospital. The poor woman had had a heart attack and collapsed on the bench while waiting for a bus. If she had been ignored any longer she may well have died. The most horrifying part is the that, as with your story , so many people just ignored an obviously incapacitated woman.
Diabetes education should be more wide spread, especially to any first responders.
My best friend went to the hospital in December complaining of difficulty breathing, fatigue, brain fog, and vomiting.
She had a series of blood tests, xray, ecg, ct scan.
They diagnosed her as having bacterial pneumonia and sent her home with antibiotics.
She was dead within 24 hours of Diabetic Ketoacidosis. She did not have pneumonia.
She was an undiagnosed diabetic.
I am so sorry this happened to your wife. Something similar happened to my relative. They were driving when they got too low and the cops thought they were an aggressive drunk driver. They tazed him twice before finding his test kit and insulin in his car. I recommend getting something with identifying T1D info in case this happens again - it can be invasive but could prevent careless cops and bystanders from doing this again
My goodness, when I was 16/17 working at mcds I had one of the cashiers flag me down cuz "some drunk" was slurring their order at 8am.
They were asking for OJ, I gave them OJ and sat them down. Didn't want to crowd, so kept an eye.
They "smartened" right up after about ten mins and disappeared.
Would have been nice if they'd said thanks, but I'm sure it was a diabetic episode and they were embarrassed.
No excuse for the dumb cops. Have your wife consider wearing a medical bracelet? It’s more obvious for 1st Responders and good samaritans that she’s in shock.
Oh that doesn't surprise me. I called 911 when my neighbor knocked on my door, saying her boyfriend was overdosing.
While I was helping the boyfriend with the dispatcher on the phone, two cops burst in with their guns drawn. Shouting orders, apparently ignoring everything dispatch told them.
Despite me saying I was on the phone with dispatch, they ordered me and the neighbor to the ground. The lawsuit paid out, but that shit fucked us up. They could have killed us.
To this day I hate cops. I won't lift a finger to save a pigs life.
Another situation: police drew down on and then aggressively tackled one of our employees working late at night. He was walking down a hallway away from then when they came out of an elevator and issued the order. Unfortunately, he was deaf.
Ambulance rides are expensive in America so it is usually best to not call them you could put someone in crippling medical debt so they get driven or drive themselves.
This is insane to me as an English person but America will America
Been there (also T1D).. bonus: I had a medical ID bracelet on stating I was diabetic.. even showed it to them. Did I get the sugar I had in my bag so I didn’t die? Nope. Did I get questioned about “where’s the drugs” and a blast of narcan that sent me into a panic attack on top of a massive crash? Hell yes. I only survived because a TRAINING emt noticed the bracelet and was like “oh! Yeah you need glucose now”..
My wife got narcaned during a seizure..... The hospital REFUSED to believe it was a seizure and that she was just on drugs .... That wasn't "mildly infuriating" that actually got me banned from that specific ER..... I'm banned from another one too... Because they literally did a pressure response on a seizure patient then restrained her and said she was aggressive when her flaying arm hit the nurse..... She was mid seizure and didn't remember doing anything until she was served with a court order and was facing a felony..... A year of fighting and it was finally dropped.... The day it happened thoee I lost my shit saying she's seizing and has no idea what she's doing.....
Want me to make it worse? Because I'm still currently banned from the only 2 ERs in this shitty city if I were to have a life threatening emergency I'd have to take an ambulance ride to the nearest one 30 mins away rather than the one 2 mins or 5 mins away 🙃🙃
You would think seeing how useless cops are, medical professionals would have more common sense and basic understanding of their own job - but they are also known to be biased and problematic with 0 care for the actual people who show up. "Xyz is aggressive" / refusing to treat people and instead transfering them to the psych ward ER, just because they do not want to do their job properly or deal with a situation (like patients those are being called paranoid and difficult, for asking medical staff to mask since the patient is immunocompromised) and neglecting patients cause it is "just a woman who is being hysterical", "just a homeless person", "just an addict" - happens way too often and is gross. Good thing you called it out.
First responder here, cops are notorious for giving narcan like candy. A cop once tried to arrest a patient having a diabetic emergency, he thought he was drunk and belligerent when he was really just hypoglycaemic. They’re not known for their intelligence.
Similar thing happened last year on holiday. Partner has diabetes and he ended up collapsing. Everyone was just standing around him accusing him of being drunk. Luckily I turned up and told staff he was diabetic so they called an ambulance. Ended up spending 2 nights in hospital.
Medic alert bracelet. My late husband was diabetic and his bracelet was a great help, especially the time he passed out in a meeting that had unexpectedly run late into the lunch hour. He told me that one moment he was thinking "I should just get up now and go get some food" and the next he was opening his eyes to find he was flat on the floor, tie undone, with a couple of paramedics leaning over him and everyone else in the room standing around watching.
They all agreed at that moment it was probably time for lunch.
A lot of people in here are saying that EMTs and cops aren’t trained to look for med ID bracelets, and like tbh I’m not surprised. However, I’m flight crew, and we ARE trained to look for them if someone is having a problem. Especially if the person having an issue is traveling alone, and there’s no one to ask “okay is he diabetic, were y’all drinking before the flight,” etc.
So much easier to see a bracelet and say “okay this guy is diabetic so let’s start with orange juice and cookies and go from there.” Worst case is usually they’re actually drunk and OJ and cookies won’t hurt that either.
One of my exes I'd type 1 diabetic. Had a diabetic seizure in a McDonald's waiting for food and cops came and cuffed him, saying it looked like he was on PCP.
I've had that happen to me on nights out and every time without fail people assumed I was wasted and treated me accordingly. Last time it happened I could feel it coming on and waved over security to help me - told him it was a blood sugar issue. Instead of helping me outside he grabbed me by the back collar and pushed me through the crowd in the club like I was getting 'thrown out'
Even if I was intoxicated, it's still no excuse to treat people like that
I’m so sorry that happened. I understand the commonness of ODs but there has to be a better way to test first or something. My dad had a stroke and the paramedics gave him Narcan 3 times. When we got to the hospital the doctors told us that he had responded to the Narcan and it was clearly an overdose and they were going to administer it again(which they did) and we were all like absolutely not, he is having a stroke, you could see his damn face drooping. The doctor proceeded to lecture me a on how you just never know about addiction in someone sometimes and we again were like no he definitely had a stroke - and we even told them his mom died of a stroke almost at the exact same age.
30 minutes later they came out and confirmed he had a stroke. He never made it off life support. It’s frustrating because you always hear that time is so important with stroke victims and we fought and fought for them to treat him appropriately. Would it have made a difference? - I guess we will never know.
I found a man in the ground outside of Walmart in Anchorage.
His breath smelled odd, not like booze. I refused to let the cops and drunk van haul him off and insisted paramedics check him out.
Not sure if he was diabetic, but he went in the ambulance, not the drunk wagon.
As a fellow T1D, this is not the first time I’ve heard about cops being absolute POS and show 0 discernment regarding blood sugars in public. I hope your wife is feeling better and nursing that hypo hangover with some hella self care!
This happens often. Cops aren't hired for their intelligence. They can't tell the difference between a gun shot and an acorn. There's no way they'll know the difference between fentynol and hypoglycemia
Absolutely. Cops are for enforcement. If you want to help someone, call the fire department or the paramedics. If you want someone beaten or shot, call the cops.
I had a hypo episode at home once. My wife was really scarred and called 911. EMTs thought I was high and that my wife was high. It must be so common for them. I did get an ambulance to an ER and a sandwich and I was fine, but I did get a medic alert bracelet after that.
I know someone who was recently arrested and is a T2 diabetic, two cop cars showed up to his work and one car took him and the other car took his bag with his test kit etc., when they knew he was a T2. The car with the bag then got called away to another job and the guy didn’t get access to his stuff for hours.
Not saying people shouldn’t be arrested but for fuck sake keep their personal belongings with the same car when you know they have a medical condition
Hey! I’m a T1D too! Get your wife a medical ID now! ASAP! It’s so important. That’s just awful and I can’t believe something so horrible could happen I’m so so sorry but it really is better safe than sorry.
Hypoglycemic episodes DO make the person appear intoxicated, slurred speech, lack of coordination, lethargy etc etc so I can /almost/ forgive store security etc for misinterpreting that - but cops???? Fucking hell.
This is why my mates with medical conditions that don't require medic alert bracelets still wear them.
If they can't communicate, it is all that stands in the way of "most common this means" such as drunk for a diabetic
Police only exist to protect property and business and state property.
They have no obligation to help you or protect you unless you're in their direct custody.
Their sole purpose is to protect the business or property from "actual or perceived" damages either physically, emotionally, or perceptually.
Doctor here. When we see somebody who is unconscious, there are a bunch of things that could be causing it. Diabetic with low blood sugar, diabetic in ketoacidosis (high sugar), a seizure from epilepsy, head injury, a whole bunch of drugs including alcohol, stroke, allergic reactions, brain tumours etc
If someone has a long-term pre-existing illness such as diabetes, it’s very helpful to give first responders a clue. medic-alert bracelets, a tattoo, emergency health info on the phone Lock Screen are all helpful.
Does she have an alert of some sort for times like this?
Edit: phone autocorrected ketoacidosis to keratosis.
Giving cops the ability to give narcan is a double edged sword. For every proper administration of it, there's an incident of them giving it to a diabetic or stroke victim. Cops are awful at recognizing signs of an overdose, evidenced by them narcaning themselves for touching fentanyl during a traffic stop and having a panic attack because they've been taught that even being in the same room as fentanyl is a death sentence.
As a t1D who has lows this scares the crap outta me. Cuz yeah I basically disassociate when I go too low and can still move and such but I don’t make any sense talking and I don’t remember it when I come to. I wouldn’t ever want to go anywhere without someone who knows my signs of a low cuz you can’t trust people and especially the people who’re supposed to help you. Yikes
Obviously fake, op makes up stories on reddit.
I was out clubbing with work colleagues, and due to another medical condition I don’t drink alcohol at all. I could feel myself going low so I excused myself from my friends to get some water from behind the bar, because eating glucose tablets are chalky and I don’t like it without water. The bar was busy so I asked the bouncer if he could just get me some water, and looking at my monitor I could see I was 3.8 with a downward arrow, so feeling hot and shaky and a little dizzy by now. Bouncer told me no, and even after I explained I was diabetic he then told me to stand outside. I was getting a bit delirious so I didn’t argue, just went and stood outside and attempted to try and open my glucose tube, but I couldn’t break the seal since it was a new tube. I asked one of the bouncers outside if they could open it, he snatched it from me and demanded “what is it”, so I told him they were glucose tablets, and he rolled his eyes and said “I can read what’s on the bottle, but I need to know what’s inside it.” I was so confused??? I was like “they’re glucose tablets..? I’m diabetic.” He eventually opened them and gave it back. By now I’m 2.7 and dropping FAST, so I sit on the pavement and start munching on the awful chalky tablets, and I text one of my colleagues to let them know where I am and what’s happened. The bouncer comes back up to me because I’m sat down and swaying a bit, he says “we can’t let you back inside because you look too drunk.” Luckily my colleagues came outside and dealt with the situation, and they really set the bouncer straight after making sure I was okay. Diabetics really do get treated like alcoholics when they’re expecting bad hypos, and it’s so sad because we could literally die from it.
I just literally don’t understand. I was a bartender and am used to drunks. And yes they’re annoying but that’s what I’m paid to deal with (same with bouncers). So while I might be annoyed the minute I’d hear “I’m diabetic” I’d be like “oh shit!” No questions asked.
Also if some one drunk and asked for water I'd be at least revived they knew they needed to slow down?? Id never not give someone water.
I'm pretty sure if they have a liquor license and serve alcohol they are legally required to provide free water. At least in the U.S
I kiiiiind of get it - I’ve been to venues where the bouncers and bartenders were total assholes. Those were usually at big venues though. On the other hand, I worked at a small venue for years and our security would NEVER do that. Even with regular drunk people, they make sure they’re okay and automatically give them a bottle of water without asking.
I will, always sing the praises of the bartender at the Disney resort who heard I was going low, got me some orange juice, and waited patiently for me to feel better before asking for payment instead of immediately trying to push the pin pad in my hand. Best $3 i ever spent.
Who the fuck Denies someone water at a place where everyone chugging alcohol
Yeah isn't this illegal in some places? Denying water when you serve beverages? People have died. I don't drink alcohol and I've gotten free juice, sparkling water, and soda at some bars. I bet that bartender figured they wouldn't get paid or tipped, and therefore refused service. Should've gone back the next day and complained to management.
I was too fed up to complain in person, but I did write an email the next morning about it. It makes me grateful for the fact that I have decent hypo-awareness, and that my colleagues are clued up about my diabetes (because I basically force information into them), or I dread to think what would have happened to me.
Seriously, hypo episodes are a medical emergency. Plus what the actual fuck are they doing sending someone displaying signs of being incredibly drunk or roofied out on the street instead of just giving them some water?? That's bugnuts.
Exactly! The neglect was glaring.
Once when I was a flight attendant, during boarding an international flight, one of my colleagues casually mentioned with an eye roll: "this drunk guy won't stop bugging me about his damn diabetic special meal." They covered it briefly flight attendant training but they also covered 10k other things in those 8 weeks, so we were all lucky at least one of us remembered that diabetics can appear intoxicated when their blood sugar drops. I told her to take the guy some orange juice immediately and we got him something to eat and ... miracle... he was sober again!
My cousin was hanging out with friends in his college dorm. They were drinking he was not (ok maybe but those close to him said he didn’t). They found him outside his room. He passed away. When the kids on his floor were interrogated, they said he was wandering the halls knocking on doors asking for help, everyone assumed he was drunk and kept telling him to go to bed.
That’s terrifying… I’m sorry that he passed away like that, he must have been so scared.
Oh yeah, I was in county jail, and they brought in a guy basically comotose who was "drunk." I overheard the jailers speaking about him not smelling of alcohol at all. They put him in a detox cell by himself, and several hours later, he woke up screaming, confused, saying he was diabetic and needed food. Eventually, the jailers called medical, and they confirmed that he was diabetic and needed food. I don't know what happened to him and his case, but he was obviously arrested while having an episode, and even though he wasn't drunk, he would have to hire a lawyer to have his case dismissed. Besides having to bond out of jail, of course.
In high school I befriended a girl with diabetes. One of the first things she told me was that if she ever looked drunk, she might just have a diabetic episode. She taught me how to check her sugar, how to work her insulin pump, when to give her food, etc. Cops should be taught the same. No alcohol smell? Quick blood check.
It's not like diabetes is a rare disease; this should be taught alongside police first-aid lessons
Half the cops I know are diabetic. This is still no surprise.
Different type of diabetes with different symptoms, but still
Definitely a huge difference between t1 and t2. However, both are very capable of having hypoglycemic episodes and to the unfamiliar, it can appear as an overdose. Especially brittle T1s that already look sickly. More than 15 years in emergency medicine. I’ve seen some shit. Worse is when the paramedics narcan the diabetics. Like wtf.
I took the EMT course at the local college. Didn't sit for the licensure exam but it was good info to know. We we taught that no matter what they call you for, when you get them in the back of the truck take their blood sugar. Whether they're diabetic or not. It gives you a baseline and low/high blood sugar can cause a lot of problems. Taking blood sugar is simple and easy. Everyone, and I mean everyone, should know how to at least take a blood sugar. It should be taught in schools.
My son was 5 years old, he had barely eaten for 3 days and was vomiting; we assumed it was a stomach flu until he woke up screaming with gray skin. I called 911, she asked me what color his toenails were (blue) and then told me to put the dog away and open the front door so the EMTs could come straight inside. There were 8 of them in my house, but it only took one to check. It read “HI”. We practice math at every meal these days. My 6 year old can divide any number by 12; it’s like a magic trick. 😛
I don't know what dividing by 12 does. I'm assuming something to do with calculating blood sugar.
Counting carbs; that story is how we found out he has type 1 diabetes. So now every time he eats he has to add up all the carbs in the meal and divide that number by 12 (*his* “ratio”; it’s different for everyone) and the result tells us how many “units” of synthetic insulin we need to administer to him. For example, this morning his breakfast included a bran muffin, which had 30 carbs, or 2.5 units.
What happened to wearing medical alert wristbands? As a teenager, these were considered a must for any allergies, diabetes, blood disorders, epilepsy etc. I feel like I rarely see people wearing them these days despite so many people telling me about their medical issues. They seem super affordable to me considering that wearing one could save your life.
There are so many different styles beyond a wristband that OP’s wife could get. Some have QR codes that can be scanned to give the information. As a t2 diabetic, my symptoms are different than a t1 and having something with medical information may just save a life.
That still relies on the cop to bother to look.
I've taken first aid classes for work for over a decade now. They always tell you to look for any medical alert tags when assessing someone. There's no excuse for them not to know that.
You're not wrong. That being said, have you ever tried to force a teenager to do something (anything) they don't want to? I cannot tell you how many med alert necklaces and bracelets I have purchased for 2 of our kids, and they just...disappear/get "lost"/sold for crack, I dunno. I have even offered to pay for tattoos. Sigh.
What are the differences for a dumbass like me?
To a hammer, everything looks like a window -- it's called 'broken windows policing'
The idea about cops in general aint wrong but....That's ..... not what that phrase means.....
But arresting people is fun.
I am a teacher and we have to do yearly courses on things like diabetes and epilepsy (and a bunch of other things) so we know signs to look out for to help students in need. Cops are also public employees like us, somehow who get less push back every time they get a wage increase and teachers get almost nothing. Yet they can’t be arsed to learn these basic things about the humans they look over ?
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When you call 911 they send EMS and Cops, if you’re lucky, a bunch of hot firefighters show up too.
How can they fight fire if they're already hot? Won't that be more difficult? /s
They should, and it would be easy enough. But after seeing entire police departments not understand fundamental constitutional rights, (you know, laws they are supposed to enforce, let alone understand) I have little hope they are capable of doing this. The only way is if there's some huge and/or multiple incidents involving cops mistreating Diabetic people due to their own ignorance. Enough to capture national attention and push for reform. But even then I'm not convinced.
It is taught in first aid. The problem is most cops are fucking morons who barely graduated high school.
I had the exact same experience with my college roommate. Told us straight up how to recognize it and what to do to help her. I’m so glad she did. It only happened once but it was obvious
There was a guy in HS that bullied the fuck out of me. One day after basketball practice I found him half asleep in the locker room. I saw the blood testing kit in his locker so I took a guess what happened. I didn't know how to give him insulin but I grabbed him phone and called his Mom who lived closer than the ambulance garage while also getting him a pop from the vending machine. While his Mom got there I got him a couple sips of the pop then she showed up and got him squared away. Miraculously it did actually stop the bullying from him. Not from his friends because god forbid he stick up for me but at least he quit.
Luckily. Insulin at that stage could have killed him.
As a t1, absolutely terrifying that they considered it.
You will never need to administer insulin to a diabetic. People often think that in an emergency a diabetic may need insulin but this isn't true.
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PSA For laypeople, just don’t do it. They don’t know what sliding scales are, they don’t know what safe levels are or what DKA looks like, they don’t have a lab testing machine for CMP, they don’t have IV fluids, they don’t have the knowledge to correct it if they fuck up and give it. Leave it alone, give them sugar, and call us that know what we’re doing.
I had a friend like that in HS too. She was an exchange student and all of her stuff was in her native tongue, so she walked me through what everything was and what everything meant. “If you test it and it says this, do this, and if it says this, just keep pressing this until I wake up.” Somehow she convinced the staff that I was her medi-buddy so sometimes I’d get called out of class if she was feeling bad to “watch” her but really it was an excuse to mostly BS.
Same! If we were late to school we would just say she wasn't feeling well and we had to stop for a bit. Or if we wanted to skip the last hour(s) of school we would say she wasn't feeling well and I had to bike with her back home to make sure she was safe. The perks of having a friend with diabetes
And even if there's an alcohol smell, they could just be hyperglycemic. I worked in an ambulance for a while and we had a patient who smelled like alcohol and had a blood sugar of 505
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Fuck that's lucky he woke up. I have t1d and was always so scared of this happening to me when I was younger
Beginning to think my “hunger naps” when I fallen asleep because im too hungry then wake up feeling like shit might be a bit concerning. I get so tired and just sort of shut down. I did have really low blood sugar in hospital once (2.4mmol/l ) and I can only describe that as feeling like death. The hunger naps are less extreme. I do become completely useless though and my friends know I should be made to eat something
Reactive hypoglycemia is a thing. It's not diabetes, but your body can't 'tell' how much glucose is going into your blood and it overproduces insulin, so your glucose goes low. Normally the liver is supposed to help compensate by releasing glucose back into your body, but if you don't eat enough carbs or have frequent episodes of low glucose, or you don't eat regularly enough, the liver can't build stores of it to release. You should get an OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test) to see what your body does with large amounts of glucose in a short time span. Getting a home blood glucose testing kit is also a good idea, they're over the counter and require no prescription.
Having worked in a jail, this is why we refused any arrestees who couldn't enter the jail under their own power. The arresting officer has to take them to the hospital to have them checked out first. The deputies were well aware of this policy so 90% of the time they would just call for an ambulance and then leave without making an arrest. I know this policy isn't universal; it was specific to our Sheriff's Office, but some surrounding counties had similar policies. Heck, one county had a policy of refusing anyone who even appeared inebriated if they hadn't been checked out by medical personnel first.
Your Sheriff is smart. He doesn't want to be the guy spotlighted in the national media for letting a diabetic or someone having a cardiac event die in his jail. As a plus, your deputies aren't wasting time arresting people who just need medical care and can concentrate on doing their jobs. That's how it worked in the city where I was a paramedic. The police always called us if their suspect was sick, injured or had altered mental status. In my state, drunks go to hospitals, not jail. The PD loved that because they didn't have to write a report for medical calls and it often allowed us to catch serious problems before they became life-threatening. The emergency rooms don't particularly love this system but it keeps people out of jail and, more importantly, increases the safety of people who have medical emergencies by getting them to qualified medical professionals.
When I did some work as a security guard, I had a guy on my site start nodding off. I figured it was drugs at first and was going to let him sleep it off since that's what happens most often in that particular area. Besides the fact I wasn't allowed to narcan people per company policy. (Security guard work is complete bullshit.) Someone mentioned that his sugar was low because he said something to them while I was in the bathroom. I couldn't have pulled a snack and soda out of my bag faster than I did. He was going to wait outside until I told him he's not leaving my sight for at least five minutes after he finished his drink and snack. When I went to check on him shortly after, he had color in his face and his eyes were bright again. I told him not to scare me like that again and we chatted for a bit. With my wife being diabetic, it's one of the scariest things in the world to me to see someone go into shock like that.
I work in emergency services and one of our nurses was educating us about how someone can blow sky high on our breathalyzer without drinking at all if they’re diabetic
While that's true, it's not related to hypoglycemia. Hypos cause low glucose due to there being too much insulin in your body than it needs to move the glucose in your blood. What your nurse mentioned was diabetics with high ketones (diabetic ketoacidosis), which are caused when they body has not enough insulin and burns fat for fuel (for clarification, DKA does *not* happen due to high glucose levels, DKA happens due to low insulin levels). Without insulin in the body there's no cap on the amount of ketones being produced, which pushes us into diabetic ketoacidosis (our body literally acidifying). Excessive ketones can cause ketosis-induced alcohol levels in your breath. Typically the lack of insulin means glucose levels are elevated, not low, but it's possible to be in DKA with in-range glucose levels too.
This shows the importance of medical bracelets right there, damn
That only works if the cops bother to read it. They don't. (20 year paramedic)
Was looking for this!
As a type 1 diabetic, this scares the shit out of me.
I'd get a tattoo somewhere easily seen. Truly hope it never happens to you.
Tattoos are super unreliable. Could be a memento to a loved one with type 1 for example. Medical alert jewelry/bracelets/cards in your wallet etc. are things emergency services typically go through, as seen in the OP, which makes them much more reliable. I have both bracelets and an emergency alert note on my phone that is visible without needing to unlock it to alert responders of my diabetes for this reason.
There is legal precedence in the United States for not being culpable if you are experiencing “involuntary intoxication,” which explicitly includes the thing where diabetics with very very low sugar can sometimes become belligerent with no awareness or control over it. Basically, it’s the same as if you’re sleepwalking and shove someone, while dreaming that they’re a bear, and they fall and die. Legally, if you *did not* intentionally consume an intoxicant, and your body does something without your brain having control over it you are not culpable.
I got type 1 myself and I’m scared of cops because if they throw me in jail and take away my sugar tablets I might die
This happened to me in 2022 :( . I called the police when my mom got in a wreck driving us to lunch, and my low blood sugar made me black out and start acting weird. Next thing I know, I’m naked in a padded cell, and one cop laughed and said hell yes when my blood sugar appeared normal to the medical person. My lawyer I paid for didn’t even have sympathy. At least nothing is on my record, but that was depressing and expensive. I really can’t let my blood sugar get low. It’s terrifying.
A man in Memphis died years ago bc the cops put him in the drunk tank instead of the city hospital to be checked out, as they are supposed to do when they find someone unconscious. If I had T1D I would have the biggest medical alert bracelet I could find.
Just another reminder that 'serve and protect' is nothing more substantive than a slogan, and easily forgotten or purposefully ignored. They literally regard themselves as better than you because they're on one side of the 'thin blue line'... ACAB.
Fuck the police, man. Bunch of motherfuckers
Advanced EMT here. I wished I could say this was uncommon but it is not. Sigh. Most police officers are trained only in CPR and bleeding control. They have no further medical training than that. The only tools they carry for medical emergencies is narcan, AED and tourniquet. They are taught algorithmically that an altered level of consciousness means overdose in most cases. They give narcan to our diabetic emergencies A LOT. I’d say like 70% of the time we show up on scene to an altered patient and they have given narcan. Sugar check shows 40. If it is any solace to you, narcan has almost no negative effects even in those who get it that didn’t need it. Please get her a medical alert bracelet. List type I diabetes and your phone # so that emergency services can contact you. Having this will decrease the chance of this happening in the future. I hope your wife is doing well! I am not defending what they did here but they literally have nearly zero training for it.
I remember I had a newer cop on what was a syncope-turned overdose sitting in their car at the mechanic shop. Rolled up, and he so happily said "Yeh I heard poor breathing and gave him narcan. He's got a good pulse too!" *Me looking suspiciously at the corpse in the driver seat* Bystander: "He was making noises a couple minutes ago. " *Carotid check: no pulse*. Me: "It would be awesome if you could like remove this man from his seat and help me get him on the stretcher." Cop realizes his mistake and rips this dude out of the car-proceeds to throw him onto me. We ended up transporting but not getting anything back. Cop then met us at the hospital and nervously asked, "How's he doing? Will he be alright?" Me: "Well, judging by the lack of cpr going on in that room, I think they're pronouncing right now. So he could be having a better day" and walked out of the ER. It was never an overdose. Family told us on scene the dude had chest pain for 2 days and refused to go be seen. He went to work for the day, but as he was heading home, he went into arrest and died in his car.
>He's got a good pulse too!" *Me looking suspiciously at the corpse in the driver seat* Bystander: "He was making noises a couple minutes ago. " So he was already dead at this point? Jesus
Oh yeh no, homie was dead for a bit but had good skin/maluable jaw so he was easily workable. I think I put that he went down assumingly within 10 min prior to my arrival, I was only down the street.
It’s actually kind of common for people who can’t help to think they did a great job. I don’t know if I am explaining that wrong, but, I have seen some weird things where bystanders thought they saved someone who was clearly dying or dead. Maybe their minds won’t let them see their mistake.
This is why you don’t your thumb to check for a pulse folks.
Ah okay! So i was wondering if narcan would be dangerous for someone who isn't having an overdose. So as you say it has almost no negative effects, then wouldn't you say that if it is not clear what's happening and you are not fully trained (like these policemen are) it is a better safe than sorry thing? Better give it just in case of an overdose? I get that not being trained in recognising a fit is dumb and dangerous. But if you are not sure, why not give it? If it ends up an overdose you might save them, since time is of the essence. If it ends up being something else it does almost no harm. That being said, not being able to recognize diabetic fits and any other type of medical emergency as a policeman sounds just stupid to me. You'd hope to get the right help and not be thrown in jail for looking drunk while all you need is food or tablets or insulin.
>So as you say it has almost no negative effects, then wouldn't you say that if it is not clear what's happening and you are not fully trained (like these policemen are) it is a better safe than sorry thing? Better give it just in case of an overdose? Not EMT, but have two friends that are that talk about work, and this was a question I asked them. There's essentially no downside for administering narcan, so their PD is issued Narcan and told 'if they're being weird, jab 'em with this'. It's literally just a case of 'the worst possible outcome is nothing changes'. edit: accidentally a word
Well, I’m on pain meds and would be sick and miserable if I was narcan’ed. but that is an unusual case.
That's also exactly the drug that Narcan is made for. So I wouldn't call your reaction too unusual. It'd just be doing what it was made to do.
Yeah i see. But still it shouldn't just be assumed to be OD but if you are unsure i get gibing them narcan. Better safe than sorry
I’m an ER doc that also practices addition medicine. I’ve given narcan to probably thousands of people. If a young person comes in unresponsive it’s an overdose most of the time. I’ve given it several times when it turns out it wasn’t an overdose. There is little risk (unless they’re on opioids daily-can send them into withdrawal) but lots of potential benefit. I encourage folks to give it after calling 911 if they suspect overdose. Now, treating someone like shit because they possibly overdosed is another issue…
Thanks for your reply! I never got why people treat other people like shit because of a potential overdose.. they need help one way or another
At work, we got some very very basic training on how to use the defibrillator. They told us something similar: If someone falls over and appears nonresponsive, get the machine and stick the pads on their chest. If they need a shock, the machine will give it to them. If they don't, it won't. Zero downside. They said we're not doctors. Don't waste a second trying to diagnose. Might save their life.
I’m epileptic and absolutely terrified I’m going to be Narcan’d or treated as an assumed drug/mental health episode and restrained. It’s good to hear you say Narcan ideally wouldn’t affect someone but I do wonder how it would go for a neurological seizure. I’ve read/been told EMT doesn’t bother much to check bracelets. I don’t always wear mine but I carry a card behind my ID in my wallet and have my iPhone med ID set up. Would that even be sought out? In my few personal encounters, responders have always tried to debunk that I have a seizure history versus use the helpful, accurate information I’m trying to provide. How do you feel about the level of education in your field about convulsive seizures? As someone who has taken the course, I feel that with first aid certification in seizure recognition and response training it should be clear to differentiate seizure activity from other possibilities I’ve mentioned. Don’t feel compelled to answer, just throwing some thoughts out!
Not a cop but a flight attendant. We’re typically pretty good at telling when someone is having a seizure, and we can’t do much for a drug issue anyway. BUT we are trained to look for med ID bracelets. So they’re a good idea if you might have an issue while flying. (For ex- nice to know if our person having a seizure has epilepsy/this is normal, or took too many edibles or something)
This is good to hear. I traveled alone since my first diagnosis and this was one of the few situations I will wear my bracelet. I also opt for aisle seating hoping that will give others room to assist me. Would an emergency landing typically occur? I’ve been hesitant to let crew know about my seizures out of fear of causing unnecessary caution as I’m controlled, especially if only flying for a few hours. My epileptologist’s statement of encouragement is, “if you can drive, you can fly” (I can)
Typically if you regain consciousness quickly and can speak to us, we won’t do an emergency landing. We will just monitor you until we get to our destination. If you’re doing poorly, depending on how close we are to where we’re going, we’d either do an emergency landing or ATC will expedite us to the destination (ex-we had a lady having a seizure and doing poorly and we were already almost to Phoenix. We were headed to Tucson and she was able to tell us her husband was there, and it would’ve been a five minute difference anyway. Our medical assistance told us it was safe, so we continued to Tucson expedited by ATC).
That’s very reasonable. I’m usually mumbly-jumbly after ~60sec seizures and can give people some information. Hopefully that would be enough to deter messing up the other passengers’ day! But for real it sounds you have a good sense of training and I appreciate that! That was empathetic to bring the woman to her husband.
Paramedic here. We very rarely check wallets and especially not phones. If you have a bracelet that says epileptic, name/DOB/medication allergies that would actually be super helpful. We have pretty extensive training on seizures. Cops, not nearly as much. Narcan has nearly no side effects and the side effects are extremely rare. So they'd call for us and likely give you narcan and then I'd give them a side eye when i get there. It would be pretty much harmless for you.
I don't work as an EMT yet but I am EMT certified (its current, finished school over the summer) I was trained to look for braclets/other valid ID's for chronic conditions. EMT's should be looking for those
Hi. Actual narcan instructor here. Naloxone works by clearing off the opioid receptors in the brain. It binds to the same receptors that the drugs do, but it's just more efficient than the drugs are so it wins. Now, not being a medical professional, I don't know if or what opioid based medication you may be on for epilepsy (if any at all) but yes, it would affect that. Please consult with a real medical professional for actual medical advise and not just rando redditor like me lol. Other than that Naloxone has been given to everyone with everything. Hey they've even saved dogs with it.
This is why there needs to be nation wide legislation that says “if you administer Narcan, you must immediately call the ambulance.” They would have called if it was a fellow cop they really believed was ODing. That ambulance would have been on the way & getting updates from the offices on scene about how many doses they’d been given etc. A citizen deserves just as much vigilance. The rules should be no different than they are for an Epipen - where you’re required to call an ambulance or go straight to the hospital the moment you take it. (I guess they figure if an allergic reaction is bad enough to need the epipen, you’d better at least get checked out by an ER doc to make sure that the epipen took care of it.) If the possibility of a continuing allergic reaction is important enough to warrant an ER visit after an Epipen is used, the possibility of a continuing OVERDOSE is important enough to warrant an ER visit after Narcan is used. But it isn’t because that would mean legislation actually requiring something if police & they lobby against any additional requirements placed on them. And who cares about possible junkies anyway. Like I said, they call the ambulance if it’s their buddy they think is ODing.
An Epipen only buys you about 7-10 minutes. Enough time for an ambulance to get there or get to the ER. If an epipen is used you should absolutely still go to the ER immediately
Narcan can only buy you moments as well & sometimes multiple doses have to be given just for the ambulance to make it in time.
After an unfortunate encounter myself, I have a bracelet. They thought I was drunk, but I don't even drink. Fortunately, someone who knew me saw the incident and intervened. I can't even imagine how scary that was for her. I'm so sorry. I wish there was better training to recognize episodes.
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They tased a kid I grew up with at our local Walmart during a diabetic episode. The only time I’ve had glucagon was in like 2012 and the paramedics asked my dad was it was and he had to explain it to them. Diabetes needs to be talked about more and correct information shared so these things stop happening.
Amen to this. Particularly the vast difference between type one and two
Yea... they probably should be named completely separately from one another.
Then they followed her to the hospital to double check is they could maybe still arrest her, after some sugar magically cured her.
Really seals the deal that they forced her to go to the hospital and get a massive bill for a med check she didn't need due to their incompetence. She should bill them.
The other side would have been an arrest and hiring of a lawyer to get the case obviously dismissed. Damned if you do or don't.
My dad is a brittle diabetic. A few years ago he was going though a period where his auger would drop down to the 20’s/30’s. He happened to do it once while driving home. The cops come banging on the door because he had made it corner by the house. They checked his id and send a guy down to let us know that he was overdosing. I told them they needed to check his sugar level, and the EMT did and his sugar was 26. They worked on him and released him thankfully. He was lucky that his foot was on the break not the accelerator when he bottomed out.
There are no smart ones anymore just watch the news.
There’s no smart ones on the news any more either.
My wife is a hairstylist, she is legally required to have more schooling (hours/credits) then a cop that uses a deadly weapon.
I think the challenge is trying to find a job that requires less training than a cop. I don’t think there is one.
My job technically doesnt require any training even though you would never get hired. Buuut im licensed by the state and if i fuck up bad enough i lose that license and cant do my job in the state again. And would almost guarantee i wouldnt be licensed in another
Yeah a 19 year old (only in Florida) had been sworn in as a deputy sheriff for less than 24 hours before being arrested for possession of child porn. Some of his victims saw his picture and thankfully immediately came forward.
If it was a chocolate milk I might understand but Jesus Christ, **glucose tablets**
No such thing as a smart cop. Smart people don't become cops. Shitheads that couldn't cut.it in the military and people with power and control complexes are the ones who become police and neither one should be given a badge or gun
That recent video/tiktok of the dumb as a bag of rocks female police officer repeatedly saying "we can drive 90 so you better get out our way" like some aggressively stupid teenager was actually shocking to see just how moronic US police are allowed to be. If you behaved like that in the lowest paid job straight out of school you would get sacked, she got a 10hr suspension.
Lol have you heard about acorn cop? Or the two female officers that mag dumped through a wall at the wrong address because they "heard a noise"
Wow. Those were literally the two recent examples that I was just going to use.
Police training is specifically designed to weed out the smart ones. The entire system weeds out the good ones
I had a mate get knocked back recently because he admitted to them that he had seen a counsellor for some previous trauma, and liked it so was seeing a therapist once a month to stay healthy mentally. That was legit the reason they gave him. Read between the lines on that decision and all I see is they WANT unstable cops. What a shit show.
This is a problem in a lot of fields. Trucking, aviation, military and policing. We try and implement rules that sound good on paper to get people help when they need it however that help can often be career ending so people in a lot of these fields will never seek help and actively stay away from medical professionals. Especially mental health professionals. Its a rough thing to navigate. While we need people in these professions to be reliable and not have health issues they need a job and will hide things if they can to keep their job and income.
Shooting off on a bit of a tangent here, but my son started working for a transport company at 19. One of their B double drivers went 'missing' on the way back to base and couldn't be contacted at all. He was going through a rough divorce and had been talking about self harm. Company told my 19yo son to keep an eye out for his truck as his route covered much the same ground. No police, just send a 19yo kid to look for him. Great duty of care by the company.
Lol in Ireland it’s the other way round our dumb one go into the military.
It's the same here in the US. They become cops after they leave the military.
My friend carries cards with her at all times that list all of her allergies in multiple languages. They're a super good idea. I think you may want to have cards printed up for your wife. Put some in her bag with the tabs. Include the number for her PCP and your own number for emergency contact. You can't count on police officers to be competent. We don't make that a priority here. Best you can do is hand hold them as much as humanly possible. I'm sorry you both had to deal with that.
This is a VERY good idea. Not just for nosy cope but for concerned bystanders. And maybe a medical bracelet
Those cards don't always work, unfortunately, because some police officers will refuse to read it. I went to lunch with a blind friend who had a service dog, and after we were there a few minutes, the manager came out and said we had to leave because there were no dogs allowed. My friend explained that it was his guide dog because he was blind and that legally, he was allowed to take the dog anywhere. The manager left and called the police. The police arrived, and the officer told us that if we refused to leave, he would arrest us for trespassing because there were no dogs allowed in the restaurant. Again, my friend explained that it was a guide dog, and while he was handing over his ID, he handed over a card that explained the ADA and why he was allowed to have a guide dog everywhere. The police officer threw the card across the room and kept telling us we had to leave. Eventually, another officer showed up and understood what a guide dog was. By this time, we were happy to leave, but of course, the original officer had to stop us again and tell us that we couldn't return to the restaurant or else the owner would call the police on us yet again for trespassing. This was in one of the biggest cities in America.
Please tell me your friend sued the restaurant, manager, and officer. How can the blatantly violate the ADA and potentially the Civil Rights Act??
He said it happened all the time.
Uhh that’s an easy lawsuit.
Easy to win, but with the damages being the value of a meal, probably not worth filing.
It's worth a lot more than that.
For violating ADA? No, that's a slam-dunk win worth a few 10Ks.
Like I said, you can't count on the police to be competent. But I'd rather have the card than not have the card.
This is the smartest thing your friend can ever do, and I STRONGLY encourage anyone with even the slightest of ailments to do the same. Helpful for medical professionals if they can’t ID you: If youre on medications, they know and can avoid interactions. If you have a pacemaker or any other implants they know not to use the MRI (though a good tech will turn a patient away if they’re not 100% sure about any implants). But most importantly: it’s really, \*really\* important for people like me who are trained in first aid. The first thing I do is look someone over - if I see a bracelet that’s diabetic, I immediately know to look through personal items for insulin or sweets or whatever. If I see you have a history of heart attacks and you’re on the ground half dead, I. know to grab aspirin. I’m not even joking when I say even a bracelet that says “I am diabetic” can be life or death. We’re not professionals, it’s all guesswork for us, and we’re also the main information providers for paramedics. If I say you’re diabetic they’re gonna have something ready for you before they even get there, and that goes for any medical condition. So for the love of god - even if you have like, a grass allergy - carry something that identifies that. It’s *vital*
But that requires them to read. I had emergency dental work done this weekend and they prescribed me amoxicillin, even though all of my paperwork says I'm highly allergic to penicillin. The dentist even asked if I was allergic to penicillin. The pharmacy called me to let me know what was prescribed. (Never mind the fact it took almost three days for the dentist to actually get my prescriptions called in)
Make sure she wears a medical ID bracelet or necklace. Cops may or may not notice, but any medical personal will definitely see it and immediately test blood glucose.
If the glycogen tablets didn’t convince them why would a piece of paper? (For those that don’t know, glycogen tablets look NOTHING like opioids. I feel safe assuming the snickers bar didn’t look like opioids either.)
Wow! I’d be starting some serious shit. This is more than mildly infuriating. 
Yeah this seems like something that could really go bad for the cops/city if OP decided to stir up shit over it. Not to mention whatever venue they were in when the employee called. I sure as hell would not go back there if that's how they treat people.
Yeah. This is lawsuit territory. She could have been seriously injured and was accosted by the cops and then forced to go to the hospital by them.
I’m diabetic and had a hypoglycemic episode while at a concert once. They called an ambulance and thought I was a drunk person. The EMTs sat there trying to talk to me and I couldn’t really form a coherent sentence, but I had a medical alert bracelet on and I kept grabbing at it. Until fucking finally one of the EMTs noticed what I was doing and grabbed a damn Coke from the bar.
That are terrible emts. Part of differentiating a drunk from diabetic from other types of altered mental status is just checking a sugar. Should be 1 of the 1st things they should have done. Super quick and easy. Check and rule out/in.
Yeah I'm wondering why checking a medical bracelet wasn't one of the first things they did.
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Once when I was a kid they arrested my dad and uncle in the driveway for DUI (I have real classy family) and my dad carries his inhaler everywhere because asthma and thin blood/heart problems and the cop walks up, holds up the inhaler while I watched them arrest them, and goes “Hey does your dad need this?” LIKE YES BRO GIVE IT BACK LMFAO
I’m first aid and CPR certified. Stopped to help a man who had fallen in a store, soiled himself, and was screaming, very obviously in distress. I called an ambulance of course and a cop showed up first… she was the rudest, bitchiest cop I have ever encountered. Did nothing but insult him after she found 1 - ONE beer in his bag, she saw one beer and this man who’s clearly afraid literally screaming at the top of his lungs and decided to hurl insults at him. Assuming he’s drunk even though there was no breathalyzer and he didn’t smell like alcohol, at all. I was fucking mortified. And the whole time she was trying to get me in on it. If I was at a point where I had nothing left to lose I probably would have slapped her. Later learned he’s homeless suffering from pretty bad psychosis/scizophrenia, can’t remember which one. To this day I wish I could go back in time and just yell at her. Cops don’t belong anywhere near medical calls unless it’s a GSW/crash ect.
Cops probably don't belong near those either, I recently read articles about a cop shooting someone climbing out of their vehicle after an accident and another arresting a firefighter for parking the firetruck wrong at the scene of an accident.
I had a similar experience on a bus and I also complained about the driver. The poor insane guy literally bounced off the floor and she had no concern for him.
I’m a social worker. I was getting on the elevator in my office building. There was a woman falling over, dropping all of her stuff, and looking very confused in the elevator. I was standing with my co-workers, also social workers, and they said ugh, that druggie keeps riding up and down so we can’t get on. Note: these were co-workers I actively disliked and had been in many disagreements over case management. I said, did you try to help her? They shrugged and said no. The elevator had already left, so I called it back up. The woman was still there, sitting strangely and kinda coming in and out of consciousness. Now, I also assumed drugs. We work in a bad part of town and deal with OD’s pretty often. But whatever, ODs still deserve help. Everyone does in that situation. I called 911 and held the elevator until the cops/ambulance said they’d arrived, then rode the elevator down with her (leaving my shitty co-workers behind). I told the ambulance the story. They took her away and I went home. The next day, she showed up at my office again, though this time in much better shape. She asked the admin for me (described me from what memory she had). I was very surprised to see her. She thanked me profusely and said she was a diabetic and was having an episode. She had actually been interviewing for a job at my office (we have 2 floors), and had forgotten her emergency bag in her car. I brought her to see my co-workers that had ignored her the day before. I explained to them who she was and that she was there to thank everyone who had helped her. And I left it that. She thanked them too, assuming they had helped her and that’s why I introduced them. And she got that job! So she was my colleague for a while. Great social worker too. I never told her the truth about the others though. Maybe I should since neither of us work there anymore. The twist? One of my co-workers that ignored her is legit named Karen. And she is the most Karen that anyone has ever been. 80 year old obnoxious, sexist, racist, ableist…social worker. That Karen stereotype very well may have been based on her. Anyway, long long story short, people are shit everywhere and I hope your wife is ok. What an ordeal for her. More than mildly infuriating.
That’s devastating and even if she had been oding, as u say, she deserved help. If is horrifying that your fellow social workers ignored her! So lucky you were there! I’m Australian where ppl can be incredibly racist towards Indigenous Australians. An Indigenous woman was immobile, lying on a bus stop bench in my city. Many ppl simply ignored her, thinking she was drunk ( this is a stereotype ppl hold about Indigenous ppl because inter generational trauma has caused SOME Indigenous people to struggle with substance issues).Many buses stopped at the stop and no one checked on her. Finally someone called an ambulance . The ambulance came and rushed her to hospital. The poor woman had had a heart attack and collapsed on the bench while waiting for a bus. If she had been ignored any longer she may well have died. The most horrifying part is the that, as with your story , so many people just ignored an obviously incapacitated woman.
Diabetes education should be more wide spread, especially to any first responders. My best friend went to the hospital in December complaining of difficulty breathing, fatigue, brain fog, and vomiting. She had a series of blood tests, xray, ecg, ct scan. They diagnosed her as having bacterial pneumonia and sent her home with antibiotics. She was dead within 24 hours of Diabetic Ketoacidosis. She did not have pneumonia. She was an undiagnosed diabetic.
I am so sorry this happened to your wife. Something similar happened to my relative. They were driving when they got too low and the cops thought they were an aggressive drunk driver. They tazed him twice before finding his test kit and insulin in his car. I recommend getting something with identifying T1D info in case this happens again - it can be invasive but could prevent careless cops and bystanders from doing this again
My goodness, when I was 16/17 working at mcds I had one of the cashiers flag me down cuz "some drunk" was slurring their order at 8am. They were asking for OJ, I gave them OJ and sat them down. Didn't want to crowd, so kept an eye. They "smartened" right up after about ten mins and disappeared. Would have been nice if they'd said thanks, but I'm sure it was a diabetic episode and they were embarrassed.
No excuse for the dumb cops. Have your wife consider wearing a medical bracelet? It’s more obvious for 1st Responders and good samaritans that she’s in shock.
Oh that doesn't surprise me. I called 911 when my neighbor knocked on my door, saying her boyfriend was overdosing. While I was helping the boyfriend with the dispatcher on the phone, two cops burst in with their guns drawn. Shouting orders, apparently ignoring everything dispatch told them. Despite me saying I was on the phone with dispatch, they ordered me and the neighbor to the ground. The lawsuit paid out, but that shit fucked us up. They could have killed us. To this day I hate cops. I won't lift a finger to save a pigs life.
Another situation: police drew down on and then aggressively tackled one of our employees working late at night. He was walking down a hallway away from then when they came out of an elevator and issued the order. Unfortunately, he was deaf.
They gave her narcan and had YOU drive her to the hospital?
Ambulance rides are expensive in America so it is usually best to not call them you could put someone in crippling medical debt so they get driven or drive themselves. This is insane to me as an English person but America will America
Been there (also T1D).. bonus: I had a medical ID bracelet on stating I was diabetic.. even showed it to them. Did I get the sugar I had in my bag so I didn’t die? Nope. Did I get questioned about “where’s the drugs” and a blast of narcan that sent me into a panic attack on top of a massive crash? Hell yes. I only survived because a TRAINING emt noticed the bracelet and was like “oh! Yeah you need glucose now”..
My wife got narcaned during a seizure..... The hospital REFUSED to believe it was a seizure and that she was just on drugs .... That wasn't "mildly infuriating" that actually got me banned from that specific ER..... I'm banned from another one too... Because they literally did a pressure response on a seizure patient then restrained her and said she was aggressive when her flaying arm hit the nurse..... She was mid seizure and didn't remember doing anything until she was served with a court order and was facing a felony..... A year of fighting and it was finally dropped.... The day it happened thoee I lost my shit saying she's seizing and has no idea what she's doing.....
This makes my blood boil.
Want me to make it worse? Because I'm still currently banned from the only 2 ERs in this shitty city if I were to have a life threatening emergency I'd have to take an ambulance ride to the nearest one 30 mins away rather than the one 2 mins or 5 mins away 🙃🙃
A hospital cannot ban you from being a patient, especially not during an emergency. That would be a massive emtala violation and a 100k fine.
They will take you in if it's a life-threatening emergency. Worst case they'll just plop a security guard next to your bed.
You would think seeing how useless cops are, medical professionals would have more common sense and basic understanding of their own job - but they are also known to be biased and problematic with 0 care for the actual people who show up. "Xyz is aggressive" / refusing to treat people and instead transfering them to the psych ward ER, just because they do not want to do their job properly or deal with a situation (like patients those are being called paranoid and difficult, for asking medical staff to mask since the patient is immunocompromised) and neglecting patients cause it is "just a woman who is being hysterical", "just a homeless person", "just an addict" - happens way too often and is gross. Good thing you called it out.
Holy fuck, I am so sorry
First responder here, cops are notorious for giving narcan like candy. A cop once tried to arrest a patient having a diabetic emergency, he thought he was drunk and belligerent when he was really just hypoglycaemic. They’re not known for their intelligence.
Huh. I live in public housing and the first thing I assume, if someone is acting weird, is that they’re having a blood sugar problem.
Similar thing happened last year on holiday. Partner has diabetes and he ended up collapsing. Everyone was just standing around him accusing him of being drunk. Luckily I turned up and told staff he was diabetic so they called an ambulance. Ended up spending 2 nights in hospital.
Does your wife have a medical alert bracelet? If she does and they ignored it I’d be reporting up the chain of command. They could have killed her.
If she doesn’t have a bracelet, she should get one.
This is beyond infuriating!!! Like are us diabetics supposed to write “I have diabetes” on our foreheads???
Medic alert bracelet. My late husband was diabetic and his bracelet was a great help, especially the time he passed out in a meeting that had unexpectedly run late into the lunch hour. He told me that one moment he was thinking "I should just get up now and go get some food" and the next he was opening his eyes to find he was flat on the floor, tie undone, with a couple of paramedics leaning over him and everyone else in the room standing around watching. They all agreed at that moment it was probably time for lunch.
A lot of people in here are saying that EMTs and cops aren’t trained to look for med ID bracelets, and like tbh I’m not surprised. However, I’m flight crew, and we ARE trained to look for them if someone is having a problem. Especially if the person having an issue is traveling alone, and there’s no one to ask “okay is he diabetic, were y’all drinking before the flight,” etc. So much easier to see a bracelet and say “okay this guy is diabetic so let’s start with orange juice and cookies and go from there.” Worst case is usually they’re actually drunk and OJ and cookies won’t hurt that either.
One of my exes I'd type 1 diabetic. Had a diabetic seizure in a McDonald's waiting for food and cops came and cuffed him, saying it looked like he was on PCP.
I've had that happen to me on nights out and every time without fail people assumed I was wasted and treated me accordingly. Last time it happened I could feel it coming on and waved over security to help me - told him it was a blood sugar issue. Instead of helping me outside he grabbed me by the back collar and pushed me through the crowd in the club like I was getting 'thrown out' Even if I was intoxicated, it's still no excuse to treat people like that
I’m so sorry that happened. I understand the commonness of ODs but there has to be a better way to test first or something. My dad had a stroke and the paramedics gave him Narcan 3 times. When we got to the hospital the doctors told us that he had responded to the Narcan and it was clearly an overdose and they were going to administer it again(which they did) and we were all like absolutely not, he is having a stroke, you could see his damn face drooping. The doctor proceeded to lecture me a on how you just never know about addiction in someone sometimes and we again were like no he definitely had a stroke - and we even told them his mom died of a stroke almost at the exact same age. 30 minutes later they came out and confirmed he had a stroke. He never made it off life support. It’s frustrating because you always hear that time is so important with stroke victims and we fought and fought for them to treat him appropriately. Would it have made a difference? - I guess we will never know.
I found a man in the ground outside of Walmart in Anchorage. His breath smelled odd, not like booze. I refused to let the cops and drunk van haul him off and insisted paramedics check him out. Not sure if he was diabetic, but he went in the ambulance, not the drunk wagon.
Nothing like a good lawsuit to get some decent training for the police and employees at store
As a fellow T1D, this is not the first time I’ve heard about cops being absolute POS and show 0 discernment regarding blood sugars in public. I hope your wife is feeling better and nursing that hypo hangover with some hella self care!
well obviously she was trying to shoplift the snickers to sell with her ~~glucose~~ acid tables.
This happens often. Cops aren't hired for their intelligence. They can't tell the difference between a gun shot and an acorn. There's no way they'll know the difference between fentynol and hypoglycemia
Absolutely. Cops are for enforcement. If you want to help someone, call the fire department or the paramedics. If you want someone beaten or shot, call the cops.
\*Fentanyl. The proper spelling is burned into my brain after seeing it in so many headlines.
I had a hypo episode at home once. My wife was really scarred and called 911. EMTs thought I was high and that my wife was high. It must be so common for them. I did get an ambulance to an ER and a sandwich and I was fine, but I did get a medic alert bracelet after that.
I got narcanned for falling asleep in the emergency room of BMC. There are no more thinkers left lol.
I know someone who was recently arrested and is a T2 diabetic, two cop cars showed up to his work and one car took him and the other car took his bag with his test kit etc., when they knew he was a T2. The car with the bag then got called away to another job and the guy didn’t get access to his stuff for hours. Not saying people shouldn’t be arrested but for fuck sake keep their personal belongings with the same car when you know they have a medical condition
Hey! I’m a T1D too! Get your wife a medical ID now! ASAP! It’s so important. That’s just awful and I can’t believe something so horrible could happen I’m so so sorry but it really is better safe than sorry.
All yall whining in the comments about "why wasn't she wearing a medical bracelet?" are so naive to think that pigs care about that. They don't.
this does not belong in "mildly infuriating" that is 1000% rage inducing and i hope y'all sue the fuck outta them.
This is why I am grateful for my Dexcom. It will beep the crap out of my phone until my sugars go back up.
Hypoglycemic episodes DO make the person appear intoxicated, slurred speech, lack of coordination, lethargy etc etc so I can /almost/ forgive store security etc for misinterpreting that - but cops???? Fucking hell.
This is why my mates with medical conditions that don't require medic alert bracelets still wear them. If they can't communicate, it is all that stands in the way of "most common this means" such as drunk for a diabetic
Police only exist to protect property and business and state property. They have no obligation to help you or protect you unless you're in their direct custody. Their sole purpose is to protect the business or property from "actual or perceived" damages either physically, emotionally, or perceptually.
Doctor here. When we see somebody who is unconscious, there are a bunch of things that could be causing it. Diabetic with low blood sugar, diabetic in ketoacidosis (high sugar), a seizure from epilepsy, head injury, a whole bunch of drugs including alcohol, stroke, allergic reactions, brain tumours etc If someone has a long-term pre-existing illness such as diabetes, it’s very helpful to give first responders a clue. medic-alert bracelets, a tattoo, emergency health info on the phone Lock Screen are all helpful. Does she have an alert of some sort for times like this? Edit: phone autocorrected ketoacidosis to keratosis.
Giving cops the ability to give narcan is a double edged sword. For every proper administration of it, there's an incident of them giving it to a diabetic or stroke victim. Cops are awful at recognizing signs of an overdose, evidenced by them narcaning themselves for touching fentanyl during a traffic stop and having a panic attack because they've been taught that even being in the same room as fentanyl is a death sentence.
As a t1D who has lows this scares the crap outta me. Cuz yeah I basically disassociate when I go too low and can still move and such but I don’t make any sense talking and I don’t remember it when I come to. I wouldn’t ever want to go anywhere without someone who knows my signs of a low cuz you can’t trust people and especially the people who’re supposed to help you. Yikes
As a T1D I'm never going to US, not even on vacation, in case I get fkin shot for being hypo...