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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

Driving with diabetes (risk of hypoglycaemia)

113 replies

UnaCorda · 22/01/2020 20:07

I've been reading about a server at a fast-food restaurant who helped a customer who was suffering from low blood sugar and was in danger of losing consciousness. Obviously that's great that this woman was observant and knew just what to do in that situation.

However what bothers me is that this customer was in her car in the first place, potentially putting people at risk. Surely if you have a condition that means you could lose consciousness - whether it be diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, etc. - and you can't reliably control this with medication or by some other means, you don't get behind the wheel? Someone shared a story of a colleague who was killed by ending up under a truck having left work already knowing she was hypoglycaemic. Obviously a terrible thing to have happened, but this colleague could so easily have killed multiple other people not just herself.

Am I not understanding something about this situation, or AIBU?

OP posts:

lanthanum · 22/01/2020 20:12

Perhaps she had got caught in terrible traffic, and the main reason she was at the fast-food restaurant was that she knew she needed to get off the road and find food.
Sure, you want to avoid being on the road when something like this happens, and ideally she should have been off the road sooner, but I'm guessing that sometimes things don't go to plan.

CrohnicallyEarly · 22/01/2020 20:16

YANBU. With diabetes in particular, there are certain guidelines you must adhere to when driving. No matter how your diabetes is controlled, you must stop and check if you feel the early warning signs of a hypo. If you don’t get early warning signs, you have to report to DVLA and they will assess your fitness to drive. In addition, if your diabetes is treated with insulin you must check your blood sugars at leas every 2 hours while driving.

Medical conditions need taking seriously, I personally think driving when you know medically you shouldn’t be is up there with drink or drug driving.

CrohnicallyEarly · 22/01/2020 20:18

@lanthanum if you know your type of diabetes carries risks of hypos, you should carry fast acting glucose in your car.

Retroflex · 22/01/2020 20:24

If you don't tell DVLA about a notifiable medical condition, you risk a £1000 fine...

Medical licences are granted, with regular contact with the individuals GP's and consultants.

Butterer · 22/01/2020 20:25

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Original poster

UnaCorda · 22/01/2020 20:28

Medical conditions need taking seriously, I personally think driving when you know medically you shouldn’t be is up there with drink or drug driving.

I agree.

Thank you - I was beginning to think I was going mad that no one could see my point on the website and saying things like "but what if it was your sister?"

OP posts:

Vanillaradio · 22/01/2020 20:29

Well YABU and YANBU. I have Type 1 diabetes and it's not so simple as you just don't drive. My licence is renewed every 3 years, conditions include that I have to check blood sugar before driving and every 2 hours during long journey. If it's below 5.0 (normally wouldn't worry unless below 4.0) then I have to stop and get fast acting carbs and cant drive till its recovered (possibly what the lady in the fast food place was doing??)
DVLA check when renewing a licence with gp, consultant etc. One of the questions they ask is have you had any episodes of hyopglacemia in the last year which requires someone to help you. If you have had 2 or more then I think your license is suspended.
Knowingly driving with hyopglacemia is very wrong and risks your life and others. Right now I have good awareness of hypos and would get off the road at the earliest sign- anything else is irresponsible.I basically stopped driving when pregnant as I lost my hypo awareness and wouldn't risk it.

Original poster

UnaCorda · 22/01/2020 20:30

Perhaps she had got caught in terrible traffic, and the main reason she was at the fast-food restaurant was that she knew she needed to get off the road and find food.

That's certainly possible, but in at least one of the stories the person had asked to leave work early as they knew their blood sugar was dropping. This was before they even got into their car.

And even if it happens while you're driving, shouldn't you get off the road as quickly as possible and never travel without fast-acting glucose?

OP posts:

velocitygirl7 · 22/01/2020 20:30

Dh is type 1. He stops every 2 hours to test his blood but would also stop sooner if he felt as though his bloods were dropping.
Our car is full of cartons of orange juice, it's one of the quickest ways of getting his blood up, although pretty foul when it's warm!
I guess like with other health conditions or after people have drunk alcohol, we are all relying on individuals common sense and consideration.
It's a scary thought that a less sensible type 1 than dh could be freely driving amongst us all.

Yellredder · 22/01/2020 20:32

There was an accident where I live because a man with Diabetes was having a hypo. He drove off the road onto a driveway and wrote off a car. Thankfully there were no pedestrians - I hadn't long since walked past with my then baby on the way to the shop. I saw the aftermath on the way back. Turns out he'd got into the car knowing he was unfit to drive. I don't know what happened to him in terms of punishment, but I don't think it would have been unreasonable to take his licence away.

Original poster

UnaCorda · 22/01/2020 20:32

Knowingly driving with hyopglacemia is very wrong and risks your life and others. Right now I have good awareness of hypos and would get off the road at the earliest sign- anything else is irresponsible.I basically stopped driving when pregnant as I lost my hypo awareness and wouldn't risk it.

Thanks to people for explaining further. Despite the votes saying IABU, all the explanations seem to concur with my understanding of this particular situation.

OP posts:

Original poster

UnaCorda · 22/01/2020 20:38

That's exactly what I meant - not that you shouldn't drive if you have diabetes, but that you shouldn't drive when your diabetes is not monitored and regulated.

63% of people apparently think IABU, but not a single one has explained WHY!

OP posts:

whiplashy · 22/01/2020 20:45

63% of people apparently think IABU, but not a single one has explained WHY!

Because the subtext of your post is that it was her fault, as if she knew she would have a random hypo and still thought ‘fuck it I’ll just drive anyway’

CrohnicallyEarly · 22/01/2020 20:47

@Vanillaradio I can’t speak for the OP, but I certainly didn’t mean just don’t drive. When I said ‘driving when you medically you shouldn’t be’ I meant things like ignoring early warning signs of a hypo. I also meant in terms of other medical conditions, if you know you should have reported and haven’t. Or if you’ve failed to inform your doctors of symptoms relevant to your driving.

I have a DVLA notifiable condition too. I follow the guidelines for my condition, as it sounds like you do. I haven’t read the original story, I googled and couldn’t find anything that sounded like it, but from the OP it doesn’t sound like she was following guidelines, and that’s what I compared to drink or drug driving.

Original poster

UnaCorda · 22/01/2020 20:51

Because the subtext of your post is that it was her fault, as if she knew she would have a random hypo and still thought ‘fuck it I’ll just drive anyway’.

Sorry, it wasn't meant to come across like that. My AIBU was that she should have been carrying fast-acting glucose, and that, in the case of one of the other cases, she shouldn't have driven when she was already having a hypo.

If a hypo can just sneak up on you like that, surely you need to monitor yourself more closely?

OP posts:

CrohnicallyEarly · 22/01/2020 20:55

@whiplashy who else’s fault would it be? If it turns out that she followed all the guidance to the letter, kept her doctors informed of how frequently she had hypos, tested her blood sugar at least every 2 hours, stopped driving if she had warning signs of a hypo, treated if she was in danger of going low (and waited for her blood sugar to rise), kept fast acting glucose within easy reach in her car... if she did all that and it really was a random hypo that she had and she had no way of predicting or preventing it, then I will happily admit that I am wrong. After all, medical emergencies could happen to anyone behind the wheel, diagnosed condition or not. And if it really wasn’t foreseeable, then it’s a good job tragedy was averted. But on the balance of probabilities, a corner was cut somewhere, she could have foreseen it, and she was negligent to say the least.

Butterer · 22/01/2020 21:02

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AceOfShades · 22/01/2020 21:05

Maybe its because you wrote a judgemental disablist post without doing any research Into the health condition you're referring to?

Original poster

UnaCorda · 22/01/2020 21:17

I also read your initial post as a blanket ban on all diabetics driving, tbf.

I did say, "Surely if you have a condition that means you could lose consciousness - whether it be diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, etc. - and you can't reliably control this with medication or by some other means, you don't get behind the wheel?"

OP posts:

Sotiredofthislife · 22/01/2020 21:20

You really need an in-depth understanding of the condition and the particulars of the situation and the history of how she experiences hypos to know whether the person concerned was negligent in some way. Diabetes is different in everyone. It can change. Fast. Without warning. And in a way it has never changed before.

But on the balance of probabilities, a corner was cut somewhere, she could have foreseen it, and she was negligent to say the least

Do you suffer with diabetes or have lived with anyone who has? Have you helped manage it? You have written the above as a statement of fact. How could you possibly know?

Maybe its because you wrote a judgemental disablist post without doing any research Into the health condition you're referring to?

About the long and short of it. I agree.

Sotiredofthislife · 22/01/2020 21:21

Hypos happen.

Original poster

UnaCorda · 22/01/2020 21:24

Maybe its because you wrote a judgemental disablist post without doing any research Into the health condition you're referring to?

I'm not really sure that's fair. Driving a car is not a human right, whereas it is surely illegal to knowingly put another person in danger by driving when not fit to do so (regardless of the reason) or where there is a risk of becoming unfit during the course of the journey.

I also looked at both the Government and DVLA websites to see what they said about driving as a diabetes sufferer.

If I'm judgemental for thinking that someone shouldn't put their desire to get from A to B before the safety of other law-abiding road users, then so be it.

OP posts:

SylvanianFrenemies · 22/01/2020 21:31

I am diabetic. There are rules to follow as outlined above. Hypos happen for a reason, and are not random events.if someone doesn't have the ability to prevent hypos they shouldn't be driving.

Of course all type 1 diabetic have hypos, but you need to be on top of preventing them when they create a risk. It's also dangerous just to wait for your early warning signs - you are already hypoglycaemic by then!

Sotiredofthislife · 22/01/2020 21:35

If I'm judgemental for thinking that someone shouldn't put their desire to get from A to B before the safety of other law-abiding road users, then so be it

You have no idea what the person concerned desired. You clearly have no understanding whatsoever of the condition. You haven’t listened to what diabetes sufferers have told you. Clearly.

chuck7 · 22/01/2020 21:35

Low blood sugar doesn’t mean hypoglycaemia necessarily. Oh has diabetes and he’d make a stop for food if he was in the lower range of ‘normal’ but being in that range doesn’t make him dangerous to drive. But he’d get food to boost it up and to not become hypoglycaemic. If you want to target dangerous drivers I think diabetics are near the bottom of the list...

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