Anyone catch tonight's episode of ABC's new show Missing? I did, and needless to say, I was not a happy camper. And I am NOT talking about Ashley Judd!
The basic plot of the show is that Ashley Judd is a former CIA operative whose college-age son leaves for a term in Italy to study architecture. Soon after his arrival, he is abducted and it is up to Judd to find him. By the third episode, Judd has learned enough to find her son as he was loaded onto a plane and taken to his next location. When he arrives at his new location, a girl around his age who appears to be another hostage is ordered to take care of the young man. They start to develop a relationship, but (naturally), this is likely a ruse, as she appears to be in the employ of the men who have taken Judd's son hostage.
At the start of tonight's episode, the girl, Oksana (played by Tereza Voříšková), tells Michael she is diabetic and when he sees her trying to give herself an injection in her arm using a banged-up hand, he offers to help her with the injection. It was at this point that I started having problems.
First, the syringe. I don't know about anyone else, but that thing looked MASSIVE. The syringe and needle looked like one they'd use for an intramuscular injection -- not a subcutaneous injection like we take.
Then there was the amount of insulin supposedly in the syringe. Ok, though I am not sure the syringe is one that we'd use, if it were, it certainly isn't a 3/10cc syringe like I use. My guess is that it was a 1cc syringe or at least a 1/2cc syringe. And the barrel appeared to be half full. If that is the case, the young lady would be taking anywhere between 25-50 units of (presumably rapid acting) insulin! While yes, all of us take different amounts of insulin, if I were to take 25 units of insulin in one sitting, I would have to eat around 475g (1900 calories) of carbohydrates at JUST that sitting! Most type 1s I've known generally don't take that much insulin.
Finally, there is the injection itself. The boy gave it to the girl in her upper arm. Ok, not a problem with the location; the upper arm is a standard location for insulin injections. What bothered me, though, was his technique. After he inserted the needle under the skin, he started rotating it this way and that, sort of like what happens when you have blood drawn, not when you inject insulin from a syringe. It didn't look comfortable and my first thought was if I were that girl, I'd be screaming.
IMO, this was one of the worst portrayals of type 1 diabetes since...well, since I don't know when. Of course, I could be wrong. Did anyone else see the show and have an opinion?
Angela