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Does Six Units Of Insulin Makes Blood Sugar To Drop Very Low?
My 82 year old father was in a nursing home recovering from heart surgery . He is a diabetic. At 9:00 pm his blood sugar was 311 so the nurse gave him 6 unit of insulin. At 1130 he fell but they said he seemed ok. At 1:00 am he was shaking so they checked his blood sugar and said it was down to 31. They gave him some juice and 15 minutes later he quit breathing and died. Could 6 units of insulin make the blood sugar drop from311 to 31 in 4 hours or could they have made a mistake in filling the suringe?
Wed, 3 Sep 2014
I have read your query
The point is that with a heart surgery, there is always a chance that something went wrong with the heart.
The hypoglycemia could be a terminal event,
When the circulation fails, the blood circulation to the periphery also falls.
Resulting in the body tissues to pick up the sugar whatever is available,
This erroneously causes the sugars to be low.
It is unlikely that 311 would go to 31 on 6 units of insulin. Besides, all it needs is addition of iv fluids- DNS. It resolves the problem of hypoglycemia easily.
So I dont think that the insulin was the basic cause
I am sorry for your loss
Dr Mittal
The point is that with a heart surgery, there is always a chance that something went wrong with the heart.
The hypoglycemia could be a terminal event,
When the circulation fails, the blood circulation to the periphery also falls.
Resulting in the body tissues to pick up the sugar whatever is available,
This erroneously causes the sugars to be low.
It is unlikely that 311 would go to 31 on 6 units of insulin. Besides, all it needs is addition of iv fluids- DNS. It resolves the problem of hypoglycemia easily.
So I dont think that the insulin was the basic cause
I am sorry for your loss
Dr Mittal
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