So I read an article about an actress who died young
I only barely recognize her but that’s a side issue.
The article says she died from diabetes melitis and her death certificate said natural causes.
This is so weird to me. No type no explanation, was it DKA or atheosclerosis or coma?
I can’t believe I became that person who determined she is type 1 because of her age and weight, but you know lack of information leads to guessing
I’m a bit gob smacked that diabetes death is listed as natural causes.
This reporter is so clearly clueless , unless the family is that private that they are limiting the details.
It’s just so odd
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Buffy the vampire slayer
FWIW, I think describing her death from complications of diabetes as “natural” is to distinguish it from homicide, suicide, and overdose, not to imply that a young death from diabetes complications is a natural outcome of the disease. And apparently, at least according to Wikipedia, her family did not want an autopsy that might have provided a more specific cause.
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I knew a Type 1 who was living on military disability pension and down on his luck, died in his camper van in a casino parking lot. Official cause of death was listed as “Complications from Diabetes”. I never was told if anybody investigated any deeper but doubt it.
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When someone dies “of diabetes complications,” it is usually from hypoglycemia. A bunch of years ago a very young man (probably 18 or 19) died while sleeping at his girlfriend’s house not far from here. Apparently, he went ultra low during the night. Some people don’t manage their T1 diabetes very well. That is probably why health practitioners are so phobic about diabetics going low too often.
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Happened to me the other night, fortunately I was able to somehow figure out how to drink apple juice. I consider myself fairly well controlled.
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I’ve had 2 times where I think I cheated death from lows. Somehow I’m still here. But I don’t feel it’s natural death, but more accidental overdose or accidental death.
I doubt if someone took too much heart medication, it would be reported as natural.
That’s where lack of information fuels guessing.
Maybe it means that’s she wasn’t taking insulin and didn’t know she was diabetic and she died naturally from lack of insulin.
That would make more sense. But apparently she had more things going on.
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I think the report could have been more specific. My guess is that she died of DKA. Ketones. Ketones can be measured after death. Glucose is iffy because it can drop to zero as cells will continue to utilize glucose for some time after death.
If it was DKA that can come on suddenly and I would call it natural causes as a complication of diabetes mellitus.
It would be nice to actually see the tox report.
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According to an article I just read in The Washington Post, liver transplants like she recently had often result in diabetes. So it’s plausible that she hadn’t had diabetes long and maybe didn’t even know she had it (though there ought to have been plenty of medical follow up to a transplantation.)
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Michelle Trachtenberg’s family are orthodox Jews, which means they do not allow autopsies, nor does orthodox Judaism allow cremation.
If there had been any suspiciion of murder, the family may not have had a choice, but since that was not the case, they could not be forced to have an autopsy performed.
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Yes, but check out your prior statement about the family.
“Complications of Diabetes Mellitus”
There is a point here: The above stream of words is meaningless. Not because there are no complications but because there is no Diabetes Mellitus.
Hypothetically extract your pancreas, a la Game of Thrones or similar. What do you have left? Diabetes Mellitus.
Eat the American Diet. What do you have left?
Have pancreatic cancer. What do you have left?
Have, well; you understand what I am saying.
The medical examiner said precisely nothing; a well paid job indeed.
Nice, a conspiracy theory. An opportunity for many things.
But the excuse is based on an assumption that diabetes can be used to disrespect anyone.
@Willow4 I’ve done that; I had an extreme low in 1978 and I lost three days of my life, but not all of it. I was, perhaps, in a somewhat more caring environment than your friend’s. I was in a tent where the people around me knew something about something (maybe one quite capable person; I don’t know I just lost 3 days).
I concur; doctors particularly around young T1s (I was 18) are justifiably and correctly paranoid.
We deal with it.
If we are lucky we have people around who help but look at this world we live in. It takes a lot of people to help us.
I agree it was likely hyperglycemia because there were reports that she was loosing weight and looked ill.
Welcome to “Clown World” that we live in.
Probably went too low. Shouldn’t have been alone. Hard to believe she didn’t know had diabetes (must have had lots of tests, bloodwork due to the transplant).
Type 1’s (like me) need lots of educating to manage it. Dying at night, alone, is still one of the worst risks for type 1’s. If it happens while sleeping, can be paralyzing.
My Tslim X2 will Alert me if going low long before could lose consciousness. If you go below 40 can be very bad. I think lowest I’ve been was 20’s. If my Tslim alert doesn’t wake me, my Dexcom app will alert me through iPhone and Apple watch. If that doesn’t wake me, my Sugarmate App will call my iPhone, I have their number as a favorite Contact, my iPhone will ring very loudly to wake me.
My Mom died from complications of Diabetes, but Death Certificate cited Cardiopulmonary Disease (Clown World).
When my sister died on a Saturday home alone, Death Certificate showed death date on when the Police forcibly entered 1-2 days later (Clown World).
Coroners usually list 1 specific cause of death, but for many it’s actually not the root cause, but the last cause that took them out.
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We are discussing manner of death.
A death is deemed “Natural” if it is due to natural disease or known complications of that disease, treatment for that disease, or diagnostic testing for that disease.
This is distinct from Accident (“unforeseen, unexpected, external event”) or Suicide or Homicide (purposeful act, either by the person who died or by someone else).
Diabetes is clearly a natural disease. So dying from that disease is natural.
Now if a person intended to give themselves 5 units of insulin and accidentally gave themselves 50 units, and died of hypoglycaemia, that could be an Accident.
But we know that sometimes you go low for reasons that aren’t clear. A combination of bit too much exercise and a bit too few carbs and a bit too much insulin can do it. If you go low enough for long enough, death ensues. When this happens (as we all know it does, and many of us have experienced transient, very uncomfortable lows) and there wasn’t some “external factor” but rather that “known complication of insulin treatment” then it follows logically that this is a Natural death. That’s the definition we have arrived at.
If a person decides to stop using insulin, develops hyperglycemia, and dies, the direct cause of death is untreated diabetes. It’s considered Natural. Just like dying after not treating pneumonia, or cancer, or a heart attack are all natural. Deaths from internal bleeding due to anticoagulants given to prevent strokes also aren’t non-natural. They are a consequence of treatment of natural disease.
Science requires reliable definitions that are consistent and reproducible across a broad range of circumstances. Classification of manner of death, as much as it possible, is a science.
Dying from hypoglycemia is unfair, it’s not right, it should be preventable (and we all wear Dexcom’s and use pumps and so on to delay the inevitable) but that does not make it something other than natural.
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Thank you for such a clear, factual set of definitions. Some people may agree, others disagree, and yet others may be ignorant. However, it is nice to see that there is an accepted scientific baseline.
What is known about Michelle Trachtenberg health prior to her death, not much. She had a liver transplant and had back and joint issues. What we don’t know is was she diagnosed with T1DM sometime prior to death or did she develop T1DM just prior to death and not diagnosed.
It is not unusual for people to be diagnosed with T1DM when they end up in the hospital with DKA.
The possible contributing causes of her death.
- She was not diagnosed with T1DM and died from DKA.
- She was poorly controlled and/or educated and gave herself too much insulin without eating causing severe hypoglycemia and death.
- She did not recognize the symptoms of DKA and died.
- With all of her known health issues she may have just given up, stopped taking insulin, anti-rejection drugs, maybe continued taking pain meds for the joint and back pain.
- There’s probably more things that could have lead to her death.
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I wish coroners reports were that scientific and consistent.
I’ve seen reports of people with diabetes
Accidental overdose of insulin
Extended hyperglycemia
The term natural death is really not used too much when it is an acute situation like blood sugar and DKA.
Unless she was 80 and failing and also high sugars pushed her over the edge, but even then it would list diabetes as a contributing factor.
I doubt there is any foul play here, because I know she was really ill. I think the family requested that record be limited and respectful of her privacy. So that statement was released, there likely was another more detailed report that was not released.
But if the wanted no one to notice, natural death was a term that gained some attention all on its own.
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Haha, well I AM a coroner. So I’m pretty clear on this stuff. But there are different jurisdictions with different prerequisites to qualify and not always is communication the strongest suit.
In our case, we release reports only to family. They can then decide what to release publicly.
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