A hypoglycemic coma is a type of diabetic coma occurring when glucose levels in the blood or blood sugar drop well below accepted norms. This condition may also occur in people who have routinely low blood sugar conditions. Any coma is a serious health risk and the hypoglycemic coma needs prompt treatment to be certain that brain damage doesn’t result. Prompt treatment means emergency medical care, under the majority of circumstances.

In the hypoglycemic coma people will not respond to outside stimuli. This doesn’t mean they’re necessarily silent or without movement, but this shouldn’t be assumed as signs of consciousness. In response to the low glucose levels, the body is shutting down and in part it does this by beginning to destroy neurons in the brain. Continued destruction could cause memory or function loss.