Incorrect Portrayal Of Diabetes In The Walking Dead

Arg, it happened again, this time in Walking Dead a few weeks ago.  Darren met up with a group of two woman and a young man and one of the woman was falling about ill.  There they are, in a stressful situation, surrounded by zombies, no instantly available fast acting carbohydrates to hand, and after a fracas Darren runs off with a backpack, and it contains insulin.

So he takes it back to them, and the girl injects herself (doesn't eat) but is instantly saved and well, and Darren gets Robbed for his humanity.

This is wrong in so many ways.  Insulin is a catalyst that enables humans and others to matabolize sugars in the blood stream and glucose so the cells of the body can use them.  If you take carbohydrates, sugars etc without insulin, you will feel ill, pee a lot, get blurred vision, get a headaches, then gradually become increasingly unwell and lose weight etc etc.  Unless you drank several litres of high sugar drink or ate large amounts of instant carbohydrates then nothing much is going to happen quickly except the thirst, headaches, blurred vision and the peeing.  (whatever seek treatment)

But, as in this film and many many others, giving insulin to a sickly diabetic without lots of carbohydrates to hand is the urgent task, but it will send them hypo (low blood sugar) and into coma and then death.  In the programme giving the girl her insulin under those circumstances would most likely be fatal.

If you come across a sick collapsing diabetic, unless their breath smells like a bottle of acetone, nail varnish remover, give them small amounts of carbohydrate and call for help and wait for them to improve.  If their blood sugar is high, it can be brought down in the hospital setting quickly, but if its too low they will coma.

Of course the rush to get the insulin is much more dramatic, than somebody slowing peeing themselves to death.

Look on the bright side!!!

If your stranded somewhere with a diabetic, and there is limited food but plenty of fresh water, then give the diabetic the remainder of the food and plenty of water.  Over the next few days and weeks they will produce high sugar pee which can be diluted and given to everybody else.  The larger the diabetic the better, the longer they will last and the more body fat they will turn into sweet glucose.

Not everybody's cup of tea, unless you like sweet tea. LOL

Let's face it my doggy likes it ;-)



My Dog Likes My Diabetic Pee

Malcolm (aka fixed1t)


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