Woman let diabetic teen die after drinking milkshake, police say
CHARLESTON COUNTY, S.C. (WCSC/Gray News) - A woman in South Carolina let a diabetic teen die from drinking a milkshake after months of not giving her proper insulin, police said.
The charges stem from a case that happened in Aug 2022 when 50-year-old Shirl Lee Sweeney called 911 after finding the 17-year-old girl lying on the bathroom floor.
Sweeney could allegedly be heard on the call telling dispatch she “knew [the teen] shouldn’t have had that milkshake.”
The girl was taken to the hospital where she was pronounced dead.
At the time of the girl’s death, her blood glucose level was around 10 times the acceptable level for an adult, measuring at 953 milligrams of sugar per deciliter of blood.
According to the World Health Organization, normal fasting blood glucose levels should be between 70 mg/dL and 100 mg/dL for a person 18 years of age or older.
The 17-year-old had also lost a significant amount of weight in less than a year, dropping from 136 lbs. to 98 lbs.
The teen’s manner of death was ruled a homicide. The coroner found the girl’s cause of death to be hyperosmolar ketoacidosis caused by diabetes
Authorities said Sweeney caused the girl’s death by failing to take the advice of medical staff on numerous prior occasions or to fill the victim’s insulin prescription.
Some of that medical advice came in September 2021 when the victim was itted to the hospital for a high blood sugar level. Sweeney was reportedly advised that the victim’s insulin “was not optional.”
The last time her prescription had been refilled was nearly a year before the teen died, WCSC reported.
Investigators said that Sweeney medically neglected the teen, placing her at an “unreasonable risk of harm, that affected her life, physical health and safety.”
Sweeney was arrested and charged with unlawful conduct toward a child.
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