How I survived death from IV-injected Lantus

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At 0806 (am) on March 01, 2018, the nurse came in and asked me if she could give me my insulin. I said “yes”. Then she started giving me my morning Lantus. One problem, she injected the Lantus direct into my IV port. I can attest to the fact that insulin, when injected directly into a vein causes a COMA very quickly. So quick, in fact I did not even get a chance to ask her what the hell she was doing.

My heart went into bradycardia (slow), & my previously normal EKG went abnormal that afternoon. I came out of the diabetic coma sometime after dark, 12-15 hrs or so. When I did, 2 of my care giver were just leaving my room, having flat-lined, stopping at my doorway. They were talking so someone else there in the hall. One of the 2, piped up, “he’s a DEAD MAN” then they all broke out LAUGHING!. The vitals telemetry monitors were off, completely dark, my room was so dark, no lights, I tried but was unable to read the clock, so they did not know I had came out of the coma, & survived the flat-line. I played dead. a Lazarus moment

What is harder to do, than stop a train?

Kill a ghost (me, a 37 yr survivor of a normally terminal cancer)

The next morning, March 02, I demanded to either be RELEASED, or I would do a self release.

My horsepital record noted I was irritable, & frustrated, and wanted (actually demanded) to be released.

Wonder WHY?

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That’s scary! I’ve wondered before what a long-acting insulin like lantus would do if injected IV. Apparently it does work pretty rapidly.

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That is a remarkable story, @gomer!

It is so powerful I moved it to it own thread: let me know if you’d rather I put it back. You can change the title by clicking on the pen icon next to it, or just ask me to do it!

This is why I don’t let my T1D son at the hospital alone ever. I fear a staff mistake like this one!

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Very understandable. It’s not only the mistakes, even if they stick to their protocols, I don’t really trust the protocols either.

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@Gomer, that’s a scary story! I’m glad you pulled through!

I had a similar experience in 2008 when in the hospital. Night nurse came to administer my bedtime Lantus, except he had grabbed the red Humalog vial, not noticing at all… At that point, I informed him of his immanent mistake. After that, my wife and I campaigned successfully for self-administration of insulin, though they are suspicious of such idea in the hospital.

You really gotta fight for your right (insert Beastie boys meme here) to take care of yourself.

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@Gomer, were you admitted to ICU??

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Wow a powerful story, and a reminder that double double checking medical staff is always important. So far we have heard stories around

  1. injecting Lantus into an IV
  2. injecting Fast acting into an IV
  3. Giving a diabetic in DKA an IV with Dextrose

Anything I missed?

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Not as dramatic, but for any procedure with anesthesia or sedation they’re going to hook you up to a bag of IV fluids. By default they’ll pick 5% dextrose unless they’re on the ball and choose saline. Always ask what’s in the bag before you give them permission to put it in your vein.

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True about the the glucose IV bag, I had to correct nurses on that one, too.

I should have mentioned in my earlier post: the nurse was going to inject subcutaneous, when he grabbed the wrong kind. Minor point.

I also had an ER doc prescribe Regular instead of my Humalog when admitted once. I suppose he had little knowledge of the analog insulins, in hindsight.

Average medical staff have no clue how to manage the disease well, and it’s hard to expect this of them-we’ve each had years of practice learning all of the stuff for managing our individual case of diabetes.

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My posting was moved, and made into a new thread, I approve. I also agree with the title, so thanks.

This HORSEpital is not known for its quality of care. They wanted to merge, become part of U of M medical system, the U refused! (because of their lack of quality care). So they became part of another system in DetRIOT. (also know for being sloppy)

We, once upon a time had 3 separate horsepitals, they bought up the other two, and almost all local doctors work for, and owe their allegiance to them, patients are somewhere down low on the token-pole.

I had long worried about lack of competence of SOME there, however, to be fair, there are also some very good people there)

This event was NO ACCIDENT.When I arrived on the ward, (room 339), upon admission from ER, I was ORDERED to have someone bring ALL my meds from home, up to the hospital. I had never heard of that before, the HELLpital never gave me access to even a single medication brought from home. When my meds were returned to me, upon release, my Lantus vial was MISSING well over 300 units. I had just started this vial on Feb 24, and should have been down about 100 units (22u/ day). Instead my vial, as returned was down about 500 units. The HELLpital put their label over my marked open date of “24”. I write the date I open every Lantus vial, so I know when opened & my 28 days are up. Doing this bypassed the normal procedures of administering meds from THEIR pharmacy, where there would likely be a pharmacy RECORD of how many units were used.

There is more to this, a lot more. I know who was behind this plot, and even their plan-B.

I have learned a lot about this I never thought I would need to learn. I also have a couple fly’s on the wall, so to speak. A semi-distant, not so nice relative high up in admin, (not involved), a nurse, a couple workers and a DOCTOR that serves as a wall-fly in the physicians lounge at this HELLpital.

Every rare, once in a while you hear of some nurse or other employee at a hospital killing off patients for some personally perceived, morbid / twisted reason or another. Most horsepitals are very good at covering up such things, even accidental mistakes.

You would not likely believe what their plan-b was…

BTW, the only thing I actively did (oxymoronic term here) was to PLAY dead, not alert them that I had recovered from the diabetic coma. I was careful to only rotate my head, and NOT make any noise. Had I not played possum, they might have turned around and finished me off!

FYI… insulin when used as a POISON to try and kill someone, is not very reliable. I came across a few interesting numbers. While less than 100 units have been know to kill a non-diabetic, diabetics, on the other hand, have even survived thousands of units, WIERD, go figure? Murder / suicide attempts via insulin have only about a 25% success rate, or thinking backwards, 75% of such attempts FAIL.

I also have a couple other resources, one is my microbiologist daughter that works at another hospital elsewhere in our state, and knows SOPs.

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Wow, well obviously if someone tried to off you, you should be working with the police on that matter. But even in the case of just a medical mistake that is a truly frightening series of events.

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Stories like the OP’s are why I absolutely refuse to give up Insulin control in a hospital while conscious. Prior to any sedation I need to feel secure that the anesthesiologist is fully on board with my pump/cgm. I had a recent surgery where at the last minute I requested a different anesthesiologist because I didn’t feel like I was being heard by the first. Minor scandal, but my life and ultimately my $$.

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Now I feel the same :frowning:

You remind me of a family story… During the birth of our first child, I was pretty vocal to the hospital staff about what I thought my wife needed. When arriving at the hospital for our second child, my wife paused at the door, despite already being in significant pain, to make me promise I would not make a scandal this time (she changed her mind later, btw, when the anesthesiologist was over an hour late for her epidural)…

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@Michel I have another surgery scheduled soon, and I have already requested the last anesthesiologist for the surgery. The surgeon said they could not guarantee that, so I stated it might be a short surgery day then. I am completely inflexible regarding my personal security in a hospital environment. Given that I have anesthesia awareness, and ALWAYS except for last surgery become fully conscious during the procedure I have every reason to believe I.will get my way.

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Incompetence / mistake… I expected, otherwise I was caught blind-sided, thinking I was (relatively, aforementioned aside) safe there.

This was not the first time. Over the past couple decades. I had been shot at on US127, (sniper missed my front tire, hit glass headlight, I drive a couple mph below limit) A pipe bomb on our S-10, Wheeled 3+ times, 2 more attempts where they wheeled the wrong car, ran off the freeway by MSP several times, multiple death threats from a city cop (dumb ■■■■ forgot to block his home phone caller-ID, leaving his name, #, date & time)

They are part of a RICO criminal enterprise, self named “the original tear group”. I had named a bunch of them in a federal court case. One name in that case cropped up in a letter, last fall, to me from this hellpital, that was involved in that case.

I was accused of exposing 6 deputies brought down elsewhere for illegal drug dealing, I did not do that one, but I did expose (w/help of a court clerk video) a bomb making & trafficking operation to ATF, at Brewery Park, in Detriot.

I tried to file (have video) an attempted murder complaint. Michigan, I thought, was a ‘duty to Respond’ state, but the deputy refused. The deputy said that was not what she was told happened, before I could begin telling her anything. Instead, I was threatened with being charged with harassment if I had any phone, mail or office contact with my Dr here.

I do NOT bother anybody… but I am not easy prey or a roll-over rover, either. I FIGHT BACK!

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Gomer, I know you from your many posts to another forum about this and other things. I think it is only fair to say that we are hearing a very one-sided story here, and one that is completely unverified. As I recall your attempt to sue some of these people went nowhere and was immediately thrown out of court. Accidents can always happen, but I have never heard of a hospital TRYING to murder a patient and joking about their attempt, and a group of doctors and staff trying to do so is even harder to believe. I’m not saying it isn’t possible, but you have a high burden of proof.

Personally I would recommend that you put this behind you and concentrate on the people you love and the things you can control. Going through this again and again without any evidence is not productive.

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The state AG (at that time) verified our case as accurate, but asked to remain out of the federal case. My case was NOT " immediately thrown out of court". The judge got tired of me catching the high$$ legal beagles in LIES, over and over. using their own DOCUMENTATION. They tried getting it tossed on a technicality. Again they LIED, the claimed missing element was on page #3. I took one 95 pg brief and shredded it in 3 pages + cover & affidavit.

Things like this is WHY horrendous cases get buried for decades. (like the Nassar / Mi State, and many others)

I DO have documentation, mostly their own (twist ups) to back up everything. . I thought we had something of dataunte after the Feds went after their wheeler in the 2004, accident, the fed said was NOT an accident. Due to the millions involved, (blackmail/extortion) they even murdered 11 Kyle in Thompkins Ctr to shut his local atty mother up…

This whole thing started over a minor school parking lot accident, a little lie begot lie after bigger lies, to cover the previous lie. That is WHY sticking to truth is always better, even if truth does not PAY big $$$.

I left them alone, in hopes they would do likewise. Such is not the case. When they hijacked my car by remote control, for kicks??, I just simply, completely removed on-star.

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CatLady, Asked me if I was admitted to ICU.

No I was not, however one visitor told my wife there was a sign outside my room, “intensive care”. I was moved from ER to CDU, Clinical Decision Unit. I did not see this myself, I did not look. One of my boys took me up to ER just to get checked out. ER ruled out Diabetes (BG 200), stroke, TIA seizure, heart etc. I was not in any real pain, banged up a bit & mostly a little sore. I was admitted, or so I was told just for “observation”.

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Accidents, mis-steps, mistakes, and oversights do happen. when I was in for a surgery, in Ann Arbor (not here). I was brought my dinner, and the nurse told me they would be back with my bolus insulin. Well I had dinner… but the nurse never came back with my insulin. I had my bolus insulin pen in my pocket and took care of it myself. I also had my glucometer, which helps.

The day after the surgery, I complained about my bladder being full for well over an hour. The nurse said the cath had not been out long enough for my bladder to fill…

Did someone here say hospitals do NOT understand DIABETES…Diabetics can and do at times MAKE WATER galore, when the BG gets high. FINNALY after about an hour and a half, they brought in a bladder scanner, more to shut me up, than anything.

OOps… 800 m/l… then they started yelling at me for letting my bladder go so over full! I would have let it ride, had they not got into my face over this. Under the circumstances, I complained to both my doctor and the hospital.

This was in a far better hospital, out of town, I trust, and usually is very good. But as one person said things do happen.

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I know that feeling. I take 30 units of Lantus 2x a day. 9am & 9pm. I also take a sliding scale of Novolog for meals and corrections. Around 5 or 6 units.

One morning I accidentally took 30 units of Novolog and noticed the wrong vial in my hand after injecting it.

What’s worse I noticed a drop of blood on the tip of the needle and a bit at the plunger inside. I knew instantly that I had injected into a blood vessel.

My heart began to thump like it would explode and I could actually taste the insulin with the taste buds at the back of my tongue. (From inside my tongue).

I knew I had minutes to live.

I rushed to the kitchen and grabbed a full family sized bottle of maple pancake syrup and a box of 12 ice cream sandwiches from the freezer and ran back to my bed. I tilted my head back and squeezed every drop of syrup into my throat with both hands emptying it in 3 long choking gulps. Then in a panic I began tearing open the ice cream sandwiches and inhaling them. With each one the wrappers became harder and harder to tear as a result of the brain fog, confusion and convulsive hand shaking.

Now I’m too weak to get off of the bed. I’m huffing and puffing like a marathon runner and swimming In my own sweat.

I passed out.

I awoke 6 hours later unable to lift my arms. The shaking had stopped and my bg was pegged at 500+ it took me 2 days to bring it back in line.

Did I mention I’m a double amputee. Thank God I happened to have my legs on when it all began. They take about 10 minutes to put on and adjust. I would have had to crawl to the kitchen and just lay there on the floor.

Now I always pull back to check for blood before committing the plunger and I look at the vial to be sure. i’ve had instances since where I see blood enter the syringe and I choose a different injection site.

I keep a few glugagon kits now.

It’s not a peaceful death. Internally it’s quite violent. I’m glad you recovered.

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