Wino Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 It is a miracle this woman is still alive. With a blood alcohol level of .708, she is lucky to be walking around. RAPID CITY, S.D. – South Dakota authorities say a woman found passed out in a stolen delivery van earlier this month registered a blood alcohol content of .708 — nearly nine times the legal limit and a possible record for the state. Meade County State's Attorney Jesse Sondreal said Wednesday that 45-year-old Marguerite Engle was found slumped over the van's steering wheel along a highway on Dec. 1. He says the highest blood alcohol content state chemists he spoke with could recall was a .56. The state's legal limit is .08. Authorities say Engle missed an initial court hearing Dec. 15, but that they found her Monday in another stolen vehicle, and that she had been drinking. She was being held on two counts of driving under the influence. It wasn't immediately clear if she was facing other charges. Her attorney declined comment. http://news.yahoo.co...rd_intoxication Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvdkeyes Posted December 31, 2009 Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Lock her up and throw away the key unless she undergoes treatment and stays sober. (Not likely to happen) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted December 31, 2009 Author Report Share Posted December 31, 2009 Nearly nine times over the legal limit. I a surprised she did not die of alcohol poisoning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvdkeyes Posted January 1, 2010 Report Share Posted January 1, 2010 You do like repeating yourself and others. Is that to get more postings for the contest? MMMMMM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Posted January 1, 2010 Report Share Posted January 1, 2010 While the story certainly says she tested .708, I really find that hard to believe. For the average person (i.e., somebody who's not a hardened alcholic), .33 can mean coma and .36 can actually mean death. In my home state (Michigan), the highest I have ever heard of was .48 and .49 (and even then we questioned the readings a bit). Sometimes the tests - both the portable and stationary breathalyzers - aren't that accurate due to a lot of factors (one needs to remember that a breathalyzer is a machine attempting to gather alcohol from lung breath and then to extrapolate that quantity to what it thinks is the actual percentage of alcohol in your blood). Sometimes the machines are just calibrated wrong and sometimes the operators don't know how to properly administer the tests. And there are even occasions when the testee has just swallowed some alcohol or, more likely, just regurgitated (or burped) a small enough quantity of alcohol to give a false (high) reading. If, for example, you take a swig of alcohol and then promptly blow on the breathalyzer, you'll show up as "dead." And, then again, I've known of a few false hospital blood tests taken (one test says .30 and the other, taken 10 minutes later, says .22 - which confirms that one or both of the tests is bogus as the body can't dissipate that much alcohol in 10 minutes). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Chang Posted January 2, 2010 Report Share Posted January 2, 2010 In our younger days a friend of mine registered 0.36. He drove away from a party and only made it a few blocks before a minor accident. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted January 12, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 12, 2010 Mistakes can always happen, even with blood tests. I knew a guy that worked as a lab technician in a county lab. Knowing this guy, I am sure there were plenty of inaccurate tests. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvdkeyes Posted January 12, 2010 Report Share Posted January 12, 2010 I recall an EKG tech who after doing an EKG on a patient told the nurses that they should let the doctor know that the EKG was abnormal. Of course, it was abnormal,; the patient had been pronounced dead 2 hours earlier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Posted January 12, 2010 Report Share Posted January 12, 2010 My mother had a condition where every so often her heart would start beating so rapidly they couldn't get a beat count (several hundred beats per minute). On one occasion, while my mother was sitting in a chair in the hospital hallway and, a bit tired but certainly alert and responsive, a young nurse (intern, probably) performed a blood pressure check on her. When her blood pressure essentially measured "zero" (there has to be a pressure differential to measure something), the young nurse started running down the hallway towards the nurse's station yelling "that lady is dead" (a somewhat strange diagnosis given the nurse was talking to my mother when she concluded my mother was indeed dead!). Although my mother did get a bit red in the face over all the attention, she, like everyone else in the vicinity, managed to laugh a bit over the young nurse's slight overreaction. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvdkeyes Posted January 12, 2010 Report Share Posted January 12, 2010 That nurse (?) was totally incompetent. I hope she was only a trainee and the instructors got rid of her before she graduated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted January 14, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 14, 2010 If I were to guess, I bet she was a nurse assistant and a trainee to boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lvdkeyes Posted January 14, 2010 Report Share Posted January 14, 2010 And she should have been given the boot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted January 17, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 She might find a better job at McDonald's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Chang Posted January 17, 2010 Report Share Posted January 17, 2010 Would you like fries with your blood pressure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wino Posted January 18, 2010 Author Report Share Posted January 18, 2010 Yes, give me fries, milk shake, big mac and a blood pressure check. The blood pressure check might inspire a person to eat elsewhere. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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