daveb said:Hello all,
I'm a new user here and am worried about the possibility of insulin overdoses. I, fortunately, am not a sufferer of the condition but my mother is, so please excuse my lack of knowledge (although I am aware of the consequences of overdosing). My biggest fear is the fact that she lives alone and can be forgetful so may take a double dose by accident so I guess what I really need to know is how much is too much and is there anything I can do to help prevent this?
janabelle said:I've accidentally overdosed myself a few times. A couple of times when I started on Lantus, I was using a vial and syringe. The worst time I took my Humalog(purple) vial from the fridge instead of my Lantis(purple) vial. I had recently changed to Lantus, and it was the first time I had used a clear long-acting. I took over 30 units of Humalog,thinking it was Lantus, my usual dose was 4 units! I realised straight away what i had done, and got my husband to take me to casualty. They were very good and put me on a glucose drip straight away. I still had to stuff my face with chocolate and lucozade, and it was still going dangerously low. They monitored me well and let me go after bout 6 hours. It was bloody scary, and they kept querying whether it was accidental!
DiabeticGeek said:Sorry people, but the pedant in me really can't resist .
This is a Hollywood variation of an urban legend! What is called "gas embolism" (i.e. a bubble of air being introduced directly into the blood stream) is almost always harmless. It often happens after surgery, and small air bubbles are quite commonly introduced by injection or intravenous drips. Usually this causes no symptoms whatsoever, and the air is just absorbed into the body over a few hours or days. Sometimes a large bubble lodges in tissues, at which point it can become uncomfortable - but it is still harmless and usually absorbed without any problem. Extremely rarely, a very large bubble can lodge in the heart blocking the blood flow. This can cause a heart attack, which could be fatal. However, even if you were to be injected with a completely empty syringe, although I wouldn't recommend it, you would be very unlucky to die. So, I am afraid, as a means of either murder or suicide the injection of air really doesn't cut it!
hi Moondust just saw your very old post about your cat, whilst not a cat lover i' wouldn't dream of hurting one. Insulin overdose especially in a non diabetic person or pet will quickly cause unconsciousness, fits, coma and death, from administration to onset of unconsciousness and fits is dose dependent but can in some cases be minutes rather than an hourmoondust23 said:can any of you tell me please how soon would you die from an insulin overdose...my cat recently died suddenly and unexpectedly no former illness....and I suspect an ex of o/d-ing him on insulin by poisoning his food is this a possibility my vet says its the only thing that could kill within an hour
does it cause a seizure?
They were acting really cold and bizarre afterwards. I gave my two weeks notice and left.how scary hope you are ok now