Comment Re:Glaring errors in the techweek article. (Score 0) 196
While most of your comment is fairly accurate, the following is somewhat less so:
Sure, taking 200-300 units more than you should have would be a world of suck, but if you had access to food to eat or a sweet drink or glucose tablets
I've been a diabetic for ~25 years and currently take 8-20 units of short acting insulin with a meal (depending on what I eat), plus 50 units once/day of a 24 hour insulin that's taken separately. I once accidentally took 50 units of the short acting insulin and it was quite an adventure. While it's possible I could have handled it with orange juice and lots of testing, I decided it was worth a trip to the hospital for 4 hours waiting for the insulin to finish it's time in my system.
Taking 300 units of the short acting insulin (which kicks in in 10-20 minutes) would almost certainly be a life threatening situation, worthy of a quick trip to the hospital, plus drinking a lot of OJ to hold me over until I got there. While it's certainly survivable, there is also certainly a fair chance of death. Access to a sweet drink is not nearly enough to deal with that much of an overdose (at least, for me)
Caveat: The short acting insulin I take is one of the most powerful insulins (requiring a much lower dosage and acting significantly faster than most).