(Fictional) Medical Shows Seeming to Think You Can't Live With Pancreas Failure??

Status
Not open for further replies.
A

Austin_98

Well-Known Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 3c
Pronouns
He/Him
I can't remember what show, it was but I saw a medical drama where (among other things) a patient had pancreatic failure and the leading specialist commented on how you can't live without a pancreas.
Uh...you definitely can. When I was in hospital with the initial acute pancreatitis, a guy on my ward had had his removed.

I've recently been re-watching "House MD" for the first time in maybe a decade and I've now seen TWO episodes where a patient was dying from pancreatic failure. One was given "three hours to live with zero pancreas function".
MY pancreas function has been zero for 2 years :/
 
The more I learn about diabetes (and pancreas), the more I realise medical dramas make things up.
I was watching one recently where a guy was struggling with with low blood sugars because his beta cells were dying off.
 
helli said:
The more I learn about diabetes (and pancreas), the more I realise medical dramas make things up.
I was watching one recently where a guy was struggling with with low blood sugars because his beta cells were dying off.
Click to expand...
LOL omg you'd think they'd do at least the very basic research :/
That one reminds me of an episode of one I saw where a diabetic girl and her partner were trapped (I think in/under a collapsed building, uninjured but trapped) and as the rescuers took many hours to get to them, they kept talking about how the diabetic was getting sicker and sicker without insulin...which is fair enough except she made a point of "I haven't taken any since my slow-release shot this morning and the rapid-release I took last time I ate"...as in, she had eaten nothing at all since she last ate and took insulin.
I know your BG can still rise without food, but you're not gonna have hyperglycemia bad enough to create an emergency, life-threatening situation because you didn't take insulin for 5 hours and also didn't eat for that time. If that were true, we'd end up in ICU every single morning (if we even lived long enough to wake up) after sleeping like 7 or 8 hours.
 
helli said:
The more I learn about diabetes (and pancreas), the more I realise medical dramas make things up.
I was watching one recently where a guy was struggling with with low blood sugars because his beta cells were dying off.
Click to expand...

I've seen the same with with seizures. I have a Non-Epileptiform Seizure Disorder and mannnyyy medical dramas have had doctors say stuff to the effect of "there are no seizures without epilepsy!".....uhhhhhh, what the hell?....even people without ANY form of seizure disorder can have a seizure. To name a few off the top of my head: Hypoglycemia, Alcohol Withdrawal, Brain Tumor, Encephalitis, Head Injury, Fever etc.
Or "We'd have obviously SEEN if the patient was having a seizure" as though all seizures involve loss of consciousness and convulsions.

I'm not saying the shows can't still be entertaining, but I'd be much more interesting (to me, anyway) and they incorporated at least some basic correct medical stuff.
 
Well it most certainly had used to be a death sentence. Medical science has moved on A LOT since my own father in law (who I never met, sadly) died because of pancreatic cancer. He starved to death just the same as anyone whose Beta cells don't produce insulin any more (ie with Type 1 diabetes) used to.
 
Austin_98 said:
I can't remember what show, it was but I saw a medical drama where (among other things) a patient had pancreatic failure and the leading specialist commented on how you can't live without a pancreas.
Uh...you definitely can. When I was in hospital with the initial acute pancreatitis, a guy on my ward had had his removed.

I've recently been re-watching "House MD" for the first time in maybe a decade and I've now seen TWO episodes where a patient was dying from pancreatic failure. One was given "three hours to live with zero pancreas function".
MY pancreas function has been zero for 2 years :/
Click to expand...
they took my pancreas in 2010 - guess i have had to live without one for nearly 14 years. Certainly the first 9 years apart from having to take CREON I was no different to your average T1.
 
Pancreatic cancer seems to be able to finish off a person very quickly. One of my neighbours was diagnosed and died within two months. The first I knew of it was the day of the funeral.
 
trophywench said:
Well it most certainly had used to be a death sentence. Medical science has moved on A LOT since my own father in law (who I never met, sadly) died because of pancreatic cancer. He starved to death just the same as anyone whose Beta cells don't produce insulin any more (ie with Type 1 diabetes) used to.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear that!
Before insulin was made available like 100 years ago, people with type 1 diabetes used to starve to death, too, because doctors would prescribe diets as low as 450 calories a day in order to control blood sugars...and, yeah, nobody can live on that for long
 
Drummer said:
Pancreatic cancer seems to be able to finish off a person very quickly. One of my neighbours was diagnosed and died within two months. The first I knew of it was the day of the funeral.
Click to expand...
This is often very true. My friend died last year and had no idea she was so ill until it was too late. The hospital actually told her husband the results of the latest tests because she had already died.

It’s often referred to as the silent killer :(
 
You should see the liberties TV dramas take when it comes to transplant surgery!! Makes your toes curl.
 
Drummer said:
Pancreatic cancer seems to be able to finish off a person very quickly. One of my neighbours was diagnosed and died within two months. The first I knew of it was the day of the funeral.
Click to expand...
Our allotment neighbour died 3 days after his diagnosis. He had felt unwell or a few months.
 
trophywench said:
Well it most certainly had used to be a death sentence. Medical science has moved on A LOT since my own father in law (who I never met, sadly) died because of pancreatic cancer. He starved to death just the same as anyone whose Beta cells don't produce insulin any more (ie with Type 1 diabetes) used to.
Click to expand...
TW you are absolutely correct I remember visiting my very ill mother in hospital around 2005 and was told the diagnosis was pancreatic cancer or severe pancreatitis.
When I asked about the prognosis I was told by the Drs that it did not matter which one it was and think in terms of weeks rather than months.
I later spoke to the hepatic consultant who said she actually had cirrhosis ( she never touched alcohol) so think in terms of 18 months to 2 years.
She eventually died in 2020 aged 91.
Have a nice w/ end all
 
helli said:
The more I learn about diabetes (and pancreas), the more I realise medical dramas make things up.
I was watching one recently where a guy was struggling with with low blood sugars because his beta cells were dying off.
Click to expand...
There have been a few shows mentioned here over the years in which a Type 1 diabetic takes insulin to treat a low, eek! 😱
 
I remember some detective show where a man had been kidnapped and the wife was very worried because he was diabetic and didn't have his insulin on him. Reasonable concern. But when the detectives finally found him, the rush heroically to inject him... without bothering to check his BG level, of course, after probably not eating since he disappeared. They didn't have to put a needle on the pen or select doses, either. I guess that would have messed the fast pace of the scene 🙄
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top