Coma-ing Home

My grandfather was in his mid-eighties when he, like many elderly people, developed diabetes. His doctor prescribed him medication to regulate his blood-sugar levels.

However, as you can imagine, the medication is only useful when followed as per directed. Often he would forget if he had taken his pills would result in him doubling his daily dosage. This was sometimes combined with missed meals which would occasionally, albeit rarely, result in him going into hypoglycemic shock from not enough sugar in his blood.

For those that have never seen someone in this state, the person looks drunk. They slur their speech, they often can't see properly, coordination is affected; mentally they are out of it. As you can imagine, it is difficult to tell the difference between a Port Perrian on a Friday night and someone going into hypoglycemic shock.

If left untreated, it is possible the person in the hypoglycemic shock can slip into a coma.

This was the fear one summer night as my grandparents were driving back from the city of Oshawa. Apparently he had been feeling bad for hours but hadn’t mentioned anything. As he was driving, he could tell it was getting worse. By the time they hit the border of Port Perry my grandfather couldn't see two feet in front of him and was really out of it.

It was a full hour after that when I received a phone call from my mother to come to my grandparent’s house. I raced over to find the ambulance parked in the driveway, ran inside and met my mother who told me that my grandfather was inside on the couch and that the ambulance attendants had quickly diagnosed his condition. They had given him a few glasses of orange juice and although he was still weak from the experience, the natural sugars in the orange juice quickly took effect in his body clearing his mind and vision, bringing him back to normal health.

The first question asked to my grandmother was how did my grandfather manage to drive the rest of the way home? From the Port Perry border to their house is a good 10 miles. We were wondering if she drove as she had never done so before in her life.

"Of course not", she firmly answered. "A lady never drives a motorized vehicle. I simply reminded your grandfather to turn the steering wheel a little left or right whenever he started to swerve to the side. Although we might have driven nearer the ditch than normal, your grandfather managed just fine."

While this answer was not totally unexpected coming from someone my grandmother's age it is not every day you hear someone reason that a diabetes induced coma is not a sufficient reason to stop driving.

When my grandfather was asked why he didn't just pull over and get help from a neighbour he replied; "I knew something was wrong. When I couldn't see any more I thought I might be having a massive stroke so I figured the best thing speed up and get home as fast as I could".