A woman was taken to an Athens hospital this week with a blood-alcohol level of .566, well above the legal limit for driving, the Athens Banner-Herald reported.

The 30-year-old was carried unconscious into the emergency room at St. Mary’s Hospital by an unidentified man, the paper reported. The man said he found the woman lying partially naked at The Lodge at Athens on North Avenue, according to an Athens-Clarke County police report.

“I think most people would consider that a medical emergency,” Georgia State Patrol Sgt. John Cronin, a DUI task force member, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “She especially pickled herself.”

Cronin’s unit covers metro Atlanta, and he said he’s “never heard of (a blood-alcohol level) close to that.”

He said people who have blood-alcohol levels in the mid-2s appear to be “functioning alcoholics” who build a tolerance that the average person doesn’t have.

The legal blood-alcohol level for drivers in Georgia is .08.

About the Author

Keep Reading

A man has been arrested after the items were stolen two days before Beyoncé performed the first of her concerts in Atlanta in July, police said. (Courtesy of Greg Noire)

Credit: Greg Noire

Featured

Fulton DA Fani Willis (center) with Nathan J. Wade (right), the special prosecutor she hired to manage the Trump case and had a romantic relationship with, at a news conference announcing charges against President-elect Donald Trump and others in Atlanta, Aug. 14, 2023. Georgia’s Supreme Court on Tuesday, Sept. 16, 2025, upheld an appeals court's decision to disqualify Willis from the election interference case against Trump and his allies. (Kenny Holston/New York Times)

Credit: NYT