<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

> there was a medical emergency and I was alone, unable to communicate, no one
> could tell the hospital, medics, etc. that I have celiac sprue and need a
> gluten free diet and drugs.

Not medical advice.

I have never bothered. But if you have communication difficulties (or it is
for someone young) it might be worthwhile. If you have a genuinely life
threatening reaction to gluten that should be mentioned. I just get pain,
vomiting and damage to my intestine. Nasty, but not life threatening in the
short term.

On the bright (?) side, if you need an emergency operation you are going to
be nil by mouth anyway. And if you are unconcious it is unlikely that they will
try to put any food or drink down your throat because of the risk of choking.
I'm not a doctor, but I would have thought that injected drugs wouldn't need
any sort of starch carrier and so should be safe.
If you were in a long term coma they would feed you, but hopefully they would
have found out who you were by then. (I'm thinking of the UK here - in the US
would they want to find out about your insurance and therefore who you are
before doing anything long term?)

   Tim

--
Tim Partridge. Any opinions expressed are mine only and not those of my employer
... "Bother", said Pooh, as the vice squad took his GIFS