Woman who died in crash had suffered insulin shock

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A Williamston woman was suffering from insulin shock when she crashed her car into a brick column and died, according to Anderson County Deputy Coroner Don McCown. He said the insulin shock likely caused her to crash.

On Tuesday morning, Brandy Brock, 26, was driving on Garren Road rushing to pick up her daughter from the doctor’s office. She ran her 1994 Chevrolet Blazer off the right side of the road, then overcorrected and crossed back over the road and slammed into a brick column.

The accident happened at 8 a.m., and Brock died at the scene of head trauma, McCown said. Because her cause of death was apparent, there was no autopsy.

Brock was not wearing a seat belt, according to Lance Cpl. Bill Rhyne of the South Carolina Highway Patrol. A passenger, Jack McCauley, 27, of Belton was wearing one. He was treated AnMed Health Medical Center in Anderson and released.

Insulin shock, also called hypoglycemia, was a major contributing factor to the accident, McCown said. Brock’s blood-sugar level was zero. Insulin shock occurs when the body’s sugar, glucose, is used up too quickly and it worsens if not replaced by food.

Brock probably didn’t eat because she was in a hurry to pick up her daughter, McCown said, but her blood sugar dropped rapidly.

“She was an insulin-dependent diabetic,” McCown said. “When you don’t have balance between your insulin and sugar, you become lethargic and can become unconscious.”

“If you have low-blood sugar, your brain is not functioning like it normally does,” McCown said, and that may have caused Brock to be unaware of her driving.

“You have to wonder if she was speeding because she was in hurry or was she speeding because she didn’t know what she was doing,” McCown said.

Car accidents involving diabetics are more common than perhaps the general public knows, he said.

“That’s why most diabetics are so conscious about their diet because they know their risk of insulin shock,” he said.