One woman got off the hook for a DUI charge with a claim just as ridiculous-sounding as one man's claim that his dog was driving his car when he got busted for DUI. Although the latter was proven to be false this woman's claim that her body brews alcohol has actually been proven true.
The case was closed, the Associated Pressreported, when the woman's (whose name is being withheld) rare condition "auto-brewery syndrome" was proven to a judge in Hamburg, New York. Auto-brewery syndrome or "gut-fermentation syndrome" takes excessive amounts of yeast in the body, as found in carbohydrates, and changes it into alcohol CNN reports.
Police stopped the woman after she was seen "weaving all over the road" police toldThe Buffalo News. She also reportedly showed other signs of inebriation such as "glassy-bloodshot eyes" and "slurred speech" according to police. The woman's attorney Joseph Marusak told CNN she had had four drinks from noon to 6 p.m. that day despite her blood-alcohol level being over four times the legal limit, which is why she was arrested.
Auto-brewery syndrome allows people like this woman to drive and more, Panola College Dean of Nursing Barbara Cordell who studied the syndrome told CNN: "They can function at alcohol levels such as 0.30 and 0.40 when the average person would be comatose or dying."
