Tragic News

[acron^]

This morning I received a text from a friend of mine. Apparently a friend of his (and as such, an aquantaince of mine) aged just 23 fell into a diabetic coma some time in the last few nights. He was found in the morning by his parents and had stopped breathing. He was rushed into hospital and put on life support immediately. Unfortunately it was too late and it was discovered that due to lack of oxygen his brain had suffered severe damage and that his chance of recovery was nil. He passed away in the early hours of this morning.

I think it's easy to forget just how our condition, when left untamed, can not only cause long-term complications but also pretty instantaneous, sometimes fatal damage to our bodies. In this particular instance I believe that the guy concerned was also bipolar and they think this may have contributed to his mis-management of diabetes, but all the same, it's a terrible tragedy.

 

[hanadr]

Acron
I'm sorry that such a young person lost his life and also sad for the friends and family he leaves behind. His parents must be devastated.
Was he a diagnosed diabetic? and was this a hypo or a True coma caused by DKA?
There is a fairly well-documented phenomenon called "dead in bed syndrome", which takes the lives of a small number of diabetics each year. It is pretty rare. :cry:

 

[acron^]

I didn't know guy too well and I didn't know he was diabetic before this but from what little information I've gathered, yes, he had been diagnosed with diabetes some time in the last few years and that according to my friend it was a hypo which invoked the coma (although I'm not sure about this considering my friend seemed to think the guy hadn't been taking his insulin, which would point to DKA instead?)

 

[hanadr]

Acron as you know,
In the case of young people, they can be their own worst enemy. I'm certain my husband wouldn't have survived his "denial" phase had he not had a wife to share his bed and act when things went wrong (which I had to do many times in the early years). He even survived DKA, because I was there.

 

[Spiral]

This is very sad news, utterly devastating to his parents, family and friends.

These are not diseases to be trifled with, whatever type of diabetes you have. People with more than one diagnosis often get quite poor services as they don't quite "fit" one particular serive and experts in one area don't necessarily undeastan the impllications of the other condition.