HYPOGLYCAEMIA – A KILLER ON OUR ROADS
Hypoglycaemia – low blood-sugar – is something diabetics learn to live with. Common symptoms include feeling shaky, sweating, a pounding heart, impaired judgement, stupor and even coma. Left untreated, hypoglycaemia can have fatal consequences not only for diabetics, but also their families and innocent bystanders.
On March 13, 2006, Queensland mother-of-three Sharon Whitchurch was driving to work when another vehicle collided head-on with her car. Sharon’s injuries were so severe that she wasn’t expected to live. But live she did – after months in intensive care, years in rehabilitation, and enduring more than fifty (50) separate operations. The driver who caused the accident was a diabetic experiencing a hypoglycaemic episode. He did not understand the dangers of driving in such a condition. He almost killed Sharon, but he could have just as easily killed his own children.
Sharon Whitchurch was given a second chance at life. In 2009, she founded Hypodrive, http://www.hypodrive.com.au/ an organisation dedicated to reducing motor vehicle accidents and fatalities on Australian roads by raising awareness among diabetic drivers of the symptoms and treatments of hypoglycaemia.
The Road Accident Awareness Group (RAAG) supports Sharon’s work with Hypodrive and wants to get the message out to the 180,000 diabetics driving on Australian roads every day. Hypodrive and keep yourself and others safe on the roads. It is simple and vitally important.
