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Insulin “use” in movies.

A few years ago, I heard an interview with a scientist who works in movies. His job was to create things like formula to scrawl on a board and exercise books that look as if they could be legitimate if you have some knowledge of the subject.
Sounded like a really interesting and creative job in science,
 
If you look up any film on IMDb it will have a great long list of goofs, can be quite an entertaining read! Although the continuity errors get a bit tedious, there seem to be more of those than anything else.
There have been goofs with the dialog & backpack design of Jack’s character in Titanic that “suggests” he’s a time traveler sent back to sink the boat?
 
A few years ago, I heard an interview with a scientist who works in movies. His job was to create things like formula to scrawl on a board and exercise books that look as if they could be legitimate if you have some knowledge of the subject.
Sounded like a really interesting and creative job in science,
They clearly skipped that stuff in the Back to the future franchise & Marvel’s Endgame?
 
Must admit I am a bit bemused by the idea that blockbuster movies should be accurate when it comes to medication. What about the other 99% of the movie? If you applied the idea that everything should be technically accurate to it and there would be nothing left!😎

Well, I guess that’s true. But it’s amazing how much we absorb from fiction in terms of understanding reality. And it’s even worse when the errors are made in ‘news’ sources (as they so often are).

I guess it just feels more important where someone may be put in a position where they are trying to help, and everything they know about assisting a (most likely hypo) person with diabetes in distress involves giving them insulin 😱
 
I think Jodie Fosters daughter in the film "Panic Room" needed insulin? not 100% sure TBH....
As above though, most films have some inaccuracies if you look close enough....
 
I think Jodie Fosters daughter in the film "Panic Room" needed insulin? not 100% sure TBH....
As above though, most films have some inaccuracies if you look close enough....

Yes and an early view of the ‘Glucowatch’, a barely functional precursor to continuous monitors which gave the wearer little electric shocks if I recall correctly
 
I think Jodie Fosters daughter in the film "Panic Room" needed insulin? not 100% sure TBH....
As above though, most films have some inaccuracies if you look close enough....
From memory Forest Whitaker’s character did a pretty hamfisted attempt at drawing up.
 
Meeeeh so I just checked out a film called “65.” So two alien humans crash land on earth just before the “big one” that killed the dinosaurs off. During the brief “stay.” They discover all life forms are screwing each other over to survive day to day. Not realy much has changed. 😉
 
Hollywood blockbusters are rarely realistic in any way. Real-life programmes, or dramas like Casualty that are fiction but appear to be realistic, really ought to research things better. Especially as you sometimes get people who saved someone else because they saw it on Casualty or suchlike. My daughter occasionally has seizures that are not diabetes related, and I would hate someone barging in saying “oh she’s diabetic, she must need her insulin…” 😱 I doubt they could figure out how her pump works, but depending on where she is she does sometimes carry a pen with her too…
 
Hollywood blockbusters are rarely realistic in any way. Real-life programmes, or dramas like Casualty that are fiction but appear to be realistic, really ought to research things better. Especially as you sometimes get people who saved someone else because they saw it on Casualty or suchlike. My daughter occasionally has seizures that are not diabetes related, and I would hate someone barging in saying “oh she’s diabetic, she must need her insulin…” 😱 I doubt they could figure out how her pump works, but depending on where she is she does sometimes carry a pen with her too…
One of the many reasons not to leave a needle attached to ones pen. Hopefully the sort of numpty that would inject insulin into an unconcious person wouldn't be able to work out that the 'wee plastic witches hats' are needles.

Or may slow them down enough for second thoughts
 
Hollywood blockbusters are rarely realistic in any way. Real-life programmes, or dramas like Casualty that are fiction but appear to be realistic, really ought to research things better. Especially as you sometimes get people who saved someone else because they saw it on Casualty or suchlike. My daughter occasionally has seizures that are not diabetes related, and I would hate someone barging in saying “oh she’s diabetic, she must need her insulin…” 😱 I doubt they could figure out how her pump works, but depending on where she is she does sometimes carry a pen with her too…
I'm always shouting at the television when I see a psychologist or counsellor portrayed in a programme or film. They break the rules that we're taught on Day One of therapist training, such as asking closed questions ("Do you feel sad about that?") and telling people how they're supposed to feel: "That must have made you angry" 🙄.
 
If you have specialist knowledge on just about any subject you will find glaring errors in all kinds of places. Many years ago I practiced karate, representations of martial arts on TV and in movies can be hilarious. Having said that, the arrival of the Bruce Lee movies did force everyone else to raise their game a bit.
I was a travel agent in another life and the number of times I shouted at the telly when a character, usually in a soap, was going to Ibiza or a Greek island on a package holiday in November or December for some winter sun! Well they’re going to be very very disappointed when they get there, it’ll be a tad chilly and they might even get snow in some parts of Greece. Or they decide last minute to go to Australia or the US the next day and they definitely haven’t had time to apply for a visa!
 
I was a travel agent in another life and the number of times I shouted at the telly when a character, usually in a soap, was going to Ibiza or a Greek island on a package holiday in November or December for some winter sun! Well they’re going to be very very disappointed when they get there, it’ll be a tad chilly and they might even get snow in some parts of Greece. Or they decide last minute to go to Australia or the US the next day and they definitely haven’t had time to apply for a visa!
I like the TV programme about people trying to smuggle food and plants into Australia :rofl:
 
I like the TV programme about people trying to smuggle food and plants into Australia :rofl:
One of my guilty pleasures! :rofl:
 
I never thought of you as a smuggler :(
@CliffH, I have to say on almost all your posts these past few days you've really made me chuckle. You have a fab sense of humour. :starstruck::starstruck::starstruck: I've had to stop myself reacting with the laughing emoji on every comment!!!
 
All this made me remember an episode of Casualty....here's a synopsis and poem I wrote back then, 'Cornish Clotted Insulin'

cornish3 (1).jpg

TV dramas vary in their respect for accuracy when including a diabetes storyline, which is a shame as the general public’s knowledge of the correct facts about the disease and its treatment is further confused by this lacksadaisical approach. Recently, there was an episode of the BBC hospital drama ‘Casualty’ which involved a young diabetic girl who was involved in a boating accident. We learned that the girl had strict moral principles and refused to be treated with any insulin that had been tested on animals. To my knowledge, this excludes all insulin currently available, unless somewhere there is a type that has only ever been tested on humans (or is in fact acquired directly from other humans!)

Animal insulin is obtained from the pancreases of slaughtered animals, and the synthetic stuff has all undergone animal trials before being approved for human use (although I could be wrong about that). So, what did the girl use instead? Cornish insulin of course! Apparently, the only stockist of her particular type was Jacob’s Pharmacy in Penzance, Cornwall – quite a distance from the hospital she now found herself in. As a result, a debate ensued whether to override her principles and give her a more readily available kind. Eventually, after she had developed diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) and fallen promptly into a diabetic coma, an enterprising young doctor administered some ‘common’ insulin and hey presto! she recovered!

Clearly, Jacob’s Cornish Insulin is not a well–known alternative, and must therefore be a secret, family preparation that is not widely publicised, and most probably based on the renowned Cornish ice cream – that delicious, golden yellow, creamy concoction that has delighted both young and old for decades…

Now, there’s Novo and Aventis and Eli Lilley too,
All pharmaceutical giants that take care of me and you,
But have you heard of Jacob’s? The Chemist of Penzance?
He’s the only known supplier of a remarkable advance!

For, once we all thought insulin was porcine or bovine,
But Jacob’s stocks a product that is utterly divine!
If you’re allergic to synthetic, and against the animal kind,
Then there’s only one type you can use, though it may not spring to mind!

Cornish clotted insulin! An ice cream-based solution!
In the field of diabetes treatment it’s a total revolution!
In seconds it will bring you round from ketoacidosis,
So ask for Cornish insulin at your Type 1 diagnosis!

It’s only stocked at Jacob’s, it’s the only place on Earth –
An insulin monopoly, goodness knows what it is worth!
But Jacob’s secret recipe, handed down throughout the ages
Keeps the people of Penzance employed on very decent wages!

Now Jacob has some other plans, still on a dairy theme,
For a fudge-based sulphonylurea that involves some clotted cream,
And a Cornish pastie statin to keep cholesterol low,
And a pilchard source of omega-3, caught fresh in Polperro! 😱 :D
 
There was some scientist who, sometime during ww2 i think it was, was somewhere were insulin supplies, were dodgy and they made their own. Wasn't veggie, though.
 
There was some scientist who, sometime during ww2 i think it was, was somewhere were insulin supplies, were dodgy and they made their own. Wasn't veggie, though.
Ah yes, the 'Diabetic Days of Yore'... :D

I won’t forget those wise old words my Daddy said to me
As he sat down in his chair one night and perched me on his knee.
He said, ‘Son, diabetes wasn’t always so much fun,
So let me tell you how it was in 1931!’

Twice a day we’d drive to town, down to the abattoir,
Pick out a bovine pancreas and stow it in the car,
And when we got home Mum and Dad would mash that organ up,
And strain it through a muslin bag into a paper cup…

Then Dad would get some chemicals and boil them in a pan,
Adding bits of this and that with flourish and élan!
And meanwhile I would drink and drink until I had to pee,
And Mum would take a jar away, as swiftly as could be!

She’d add it to the chemicals, and if it turned bright red
Then I would have no supper and be sent off straight to bed.
But if it just turned yellowish, I’d have something to eat
Like carrots mashed in gravy, with sweet pickles for a treat!

I didn’t like the needles though, at least six inches long!
So Mum would jig around the room, distracting me with song!
And when he’d scraped the rust off, Dad would stick it in my butt,
I’d bite down on a leather strap to keep my mouth tight shut!

So, should you whinge and moan about how finger pricking’s bad,
Then pause to contemplate about the progress we have had.
We’ve gone from times when prospects for our future might seem poor,
To looking forward to the day that they announce the cure! 🙂 <3
 
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