Insulin overdose

[lagioiella]

I think if you eat/drink it, it's simply digested, I'd be thinking they shared a dope cookie

No, this was not dope.

 

[Hooked]

February 19th of this year, I was asked by my employer's care provider to stop by the house for something of importance. Upon arrival she changed the subject, and insisted I try her soup which she had previously dished out into a bowl. She gave my son some out of the pot on the stove. Instantly I was in the bathroom, and felt lightheaded and had visual disturbances. My son had no symptoms. My son drove me to the emergency room shortly thereafter and they thought I was having a stroke as my blood pressure was 220/111. They kept me there for 3 days. My boss and the care provider called to see when I was going to come in next, not about my health which my doctor and nurses thought was REALLY peculiar. He owed me two months salary. Afterwards, the care provider and him were suggesting I work for free. I have my full urinalysis and blood reports. What do I look for that would indicate that that I may have been poisoned with my employer's insulin?

A syringe sticking out of your arm. Insulin doesn't work if it's digested; otherwise we'd all be on oral medication rather than injections.

 

[Spiker]

Even a massive subcutaneous injection of insulin would not affect you instantly. And insulin is totally destroyed in the gut.

Famous attempts to murder people with insulin involved repeated massive doses injected into diabetics over a long period of time. And non diabetics are much more resistant to injected insulin because they have other effective mechanisms to regulate their blood sugar.

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[siwren]

I have a question, my fiancé recently passed away and he was a type 1 diabetic. He had been having a lot of hypo's b4 he died, and he didn't take very good care of himself, he drank every night and chewed tobacco. He was having a lot of hypos as I said b4 and recently was very tired (unlike him, he was a morning person, and he was sleeping in like 2-3 hours later than usual). As his fiancé I cannot get the medical records from the hospital (because I'm not technically 'related' to him) to find out more info about the night he died. He had recently had a doctors appt. and after that he started (at times) giving me weird looks, like he wanted to tell me something, but when I asked him if something was wrong, he would clam up.
Trying to put things together in my head to figure out what exactly happened has been tough, but here's what I got: I came home to him lying on the bed snoring. I thought he was sleeping and left him alone for about 1 hr., then I decided to wake him and tell him what happened on my day trip to the city(I was gone all day). I couldn't wake him up! He was lying there and snoring and was already in a coma! I tested his blood sugar and it was 30, I called for an ambulance, tested him again, and it was 41. The ambulance arrived and took him to the hospital and they couldn't revive him! He died 1 1/2 hours after his arrival at the hospital. It was heartbreaking, my fiancé was only 52 and we were to elope in 3 months. I still have flashbacks of that night and sometimes cannot sleep in the bed for fear I will have another flashback of that night when I couldn't wake him.
I wonder if he overdosed on his insulin. Usually he would come out of a hypo as low as 27 and be fine. I know he was drinking that day, and even still had some chewing tobacco under his upper lip, I don't know how much he had to eat, and we always had to remind him to eat! I've read that emergency glucose shots wont work if someone has been drinking alcohol and that was the cause of the hypo. He had done some things like made long phone calls to family members who lived far away from us, gave his daughter the combination to the safe, and he had a lot of money in his wallet (unusual, for him), said once to me that his kids would be better off (financially) without him, things that could mean he was planning to od, but it is all speculation on my part. I don't know how this could have happened, and am desperately trying to find out in hopes of getting some kind of closure about what happened to him?

 

[Hooked]

I have a question, my fiancé recently passed away and he was a type 1 diabetic. He had been having a lot of hypo's b4 he died, and he didn't take very good care of himself, he drank every night and chewed tobacco. He was having a lot of hypos as I said b4 and recently was very tired (unlike him, he was a morning person, and he was sleeping in like 2-3 hours later than usual). As his fiancé I cannot get the medical records from the hospital (because I'm not technically 'related' to him) to find out more info about the night he died. He had recently had a doctors appt. and after that he started (at times) giving me weird looks, like he wanted to tell me something, but when I asked him if something was wrong, he would clam up.
Trying to put things together in my head to figure out what exactly happened has been tough, but here's what I got: I came home to him lying on the bed snoring. I thought he was sleeping and left him alone for about 1 hr., then I decided to wake him and tell him what happened on my day trip to the city(I was gone all day). I couldn't wake him up! He was lying there and snoring and was already in a coma! I tested his blood sugar and it was 30, I called for an ambulance, tested him again, and it was 41. The ambulance arrived and took him to the hospital and they couldn't revive him! He died 1 1/2 hours after his arrival at the hospital. It was heartbreaking, my fiancé was only 52 and we were to elope in 3 months. I still have flashbacks of that night and sometimes cannot sleep in the bed for fear I will have another flashback of that night when I couldn't wake him.
I wonder if he overdosed on his insulin. Usually he would come out of a hypo as low as 27 and be fine. I know he was drinking that day, and even still had some chewing tobacco under his upper lip, I don't know how much he had to eat, and we always had to remind him to eat! I've read that emergency glucose shots wont work if someone has been drinking alcohol and that was the cause of the hypo. He had done some things like made long phone calls to family members who lived far away from us, gave his daughter the combination to the safe, and he had a lot of money in his wallet (unusual, for him), said once to me that his kids would be better off (financially) without him, things that could mean he was planning to od, but it is all speculation on my part. I don't know how this could have happened, and am desperately trying to find out in hopes of getting some kind of closure about what happened to him?

So sorry for your loss. Have you spoken with his family, surely they'd have access to info from the hospital?

 

[Spiker]

I agree with Hooked, I am sorry for your loss, and suggest you go via the family. I can see why a definitive cause of death would help you in processing it all. Was there a coroner's inquest or other official cause of death?

Yes it is true that drinking alcohol will interfere with the glucagon injections that are used by paramedics in treating someone in a hypoglycemic coma. I think you are using mg/dl units so 31 mg/dl is below 2 mmol/L and very low. 27 md/dl is very low to come out of a coma unaided. It sounds like he had had repeated coma incidents prior to the fatal one? Every hypo coma unfortunately is a risk of a fatality.

Again, very sorry for your loss.

 

[jack412]

Sorry for your loss
I think heart failure or stroke is a common cause in situations like this and just diabetic death in general
http://www.nytimes.com/health/guides/disease/type-1-diabetes/complications.html
Patients with type 1 diabetes are 10 times more at risk for heart disease than healthy patients. Heart attacks account for 60% of deaths in patients with diabetes, while strokes account for 25% of such deaths. Diabetes affects the heart in many ways:

 

[siwren]

So sorry for your loss. Have you spoken with his family, surely they'd have access to info from the hospital?

I have asked the family and did not get an answer really, I will have to ask again. He did not have any heart problems, and no autopsy was performed, the cause of death on the death certificate was "asthma, 3 years" and "diabetes, 30 years", cause: Natural cause of death.