CINCINNATI -- Isabelle Meehan spent almost a month in the hospital. Her family and friends didn't know if she would live.
Izzy crashed and was ejected from her car nearly four months ago. Her family believes her Type 1 diabetes caused her to black out.Fortunately, she is recovering.
"It's been such a miracle, and we so blessed," said her mom, Halle Meehan.
Now Izzy is raising awareness of Type 1 diabetes to make sure that what happened to her doesn't happen to anyone else. She was driving home from a tutoring session in January when she crashed on Montgomery Road.
"I wasn't really thinking, like when you have really low blood sugar you don't really think straight," she said.
Izzy was ejected from the car and spent weeks in critical condition at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center.
"I don't remember any of it," she said.
She was so disoriented before the crash, she drove 20 miles past her Maineville home.
"What happened to me still scares me, even though I don't remember any of it," Izzy said.
Dr. Shailesh Patel is the chief of endocrinology at UC Health. He said insulin is "absolutely vital" to manage Type 1 diabetes.
"If you deprive the brain of that fuel, the brain will not think correctly and if it doesn't, you may end up in trouble," he said.
If your blood sugar drops, you may sweat, become hungry, have a high heart rate and feel anxious and shaky.
"Always make sure before you operate heavy machinery or drive, check your blood sugar to make sure," Patel said. "Before you act, do that so you know what your blood sugar is."
Now Izzy knows to always check her blood sugar.
"Just trust your body," she said.
