When Aurora Police Officer Randy Podschweit encountered David Kramer after a car crash earlier this year, it looked like Kramer was drunk.
If Podschweit had arrested Kramer and sent him to jail, Kramer, a diabetic whose blood sugar had dropped dangerously low, could have gone into a coma or died.
But Podschweit, after being told by Kramer’s son Matthew, 6, and daughter Molly, 5, that “Daddy needs his shot,” called an ambulance. Kramer was taken to Mercy Center, where he was treated for severe insulin shock and released.
Kramer, deputy executive director of the Aurora Housing Authority, is more careful now about monitoring his blood-sugar level, and he’s very grateful to Podschweit for his reasoned, professional reaction.
“If he had just arrested me . . . and put me in the paddy wagon that was there and taken me to the police station, I could have died,” Kramer said. “I was very thankful to Randy. It also could have been very traumatic for my children.”
Mistaking low blood sugar, or hypoglycemia, for drunkenness is common, said Dr. Nathaniel Clark, national vice president for clinical affairs at the American Diabetic Association.
“I’ve had a number of patients that this has happened to, and it’s a very unfortunate situation,” Clark said. “Someone who is hypoglycemic can be very uncooperative and abusive.” They also tend to slur their speech, he said.
In some cases, patients who are not given food to raise their blood-sugar level “could develop seizures and have a far greater problem,” Clark said. He added that diabetics should wear medic alert bracelets to reduce the chances of hypoglycemia being mistaken for intoxication.
In the Aurora case, Podschweit knew Kramer and suspected from the start that the problem might be something other than drunkenness. “It just didn’t fit him,” Podschweit said. “When I walked up to the car and saw that he was totally out of it, I knew he had some kind of medical problem.”
Podschweit, a 22-year veteran of the force, remained calm and treated Kramer and his children with respect, Kramer said. Kramer also credited other officers at the scene for their professional behavior.
Podschweit’s handling of the situation also impressed Police Department supervisors. He was recently honored as the February Employee of the Month. Podschweit “looked beyond the obvious” to properly handle the situation, Chief Larry Langston said.
When Kramer picked up his children from day care around noon on Jan. 8, his blood-sugar level was falling. While driving on the 700 block of North Edgelawn Drive, in what Kramer described as a “dream-like state,” he sideswiped a car and knocked over a concrete light pole.
Kramer said he traveled as far as 2 miles in that condition, and he’s thankful no one was hurt, especially since he passed two schools.
Podschweit was called to the scene to investigate a possible drunken driver. Following Kramer for about a mile, during which he used his strobe light, siren and loudspeaker to try to get Kramer to pull over, he saw Kramer’s car weaving and rolling through stop signs.
“Luckily, nobody was hurt,” Podschweit said. Kramer finally pulled alongside the curb, where he was not responsive to Podschweit. “He didn’t know anything,” Podschweit recalled. “He didn’t have a clue what was going on.”
Then Podschweit talked to Molly and Matthew. “Right away, I said, `Send me an ambulance, because it’s a medical problem.'” Podschweit said. Ambulance technicians determined Kramer’s blood-sugar level was 38 milligrams per deciliter. Anything below 70 is considered low.
After the incident, Kramer, a former police officer who works closely with the department’s Community Oriented Policing Unit and whose father was a police officer, wrote a letter to Podschweit, noting that police officers often get a bad rap.
“Everyone loves to complain about the police and take cheap shots,” Kramer wrote. “It is a very difficult and often thankless job. People seem to complain right up to the time that they are dialing 911 for help. It is easy to complain, but more people should be thankful for the good work most police do.”
