If you are like many people in North Carolina, you might assume that the results of tests used to check a person’s blood alcohol content level are always accurate. These tests may include the collection of a breath, blood or urine sample. The fact of the matter is that these tests might not always tell the whole story, even if they are accurate in some ways.
An ideal example of this can be seen in the case of one man who, unbeknownst to him for some time, had a rare medical condition in which his body produced its own alcohol even when he had not consumed any alcoholic beverages. As reported by USA Today, the condition is called auto brewery syndrome and involves the body metabolizing sweet or carbohydrate-heavy drinks or foods into alcohol.
People with this condition exhibit symptoms of being intoxicated and, as in the case of the man in the report, may have measurable BACs at levels often considered to be fatal. However, they do not need to have been drinking at all. The man in the story developed auto brewery syndrome after a course of antibiotic medications reduced the healthy bacteria in his system, thereby allowing the development of yeast which could eventually ferment and assist in the production of alcohol throughout his body.
This information is not intended to provide legal advice but is instead meant to give residents in North Carolina an understanding of the importance of promoting their rights by pursuing a defense against drunk driving charges as it is possible for other factors to influence a situation.
