Can shock and trauma effect blood alcohol levels?

Answer 1

No. Blood alcohol occasionally rises after an accident because alcohol does not enter the system immediately after drinking. Food in the stomach will effect absorption times, although the alcohol will be absorbed eventually.

Put simply, you can continue to get drunker for some time after you stop drinking.

I disagree with the above comment after severe trauma, when the body goes into shock, organ function is greatly impacted. Your body basically goes into survival mode which can render the metabolic function of the liver to slow down drastically or stop completely. There was a recent court case in Minnesota involving a boat accident where the driver experienced severe blood loss and shock after the boat accident. Both the prosecution medical examiner and the defense expert witness stated that the metabolism of both food and alcohol can be drastically impacted after trauma and shock. If you think about it if liver functioning goes into a survival mode and metabolism slows or ceases it is possible that once the body begins coming out of the shock and the metabolic absorption returns to normal any alcohol that was in the system prior to the incident would be rapidly absorbed. Any BAC reading might be questionable as the alcohol was not absorbed by the body until well after the accident due to the liver shock.