I’m so sorry for your bad experience… Yes, it is most tragic… It’s stories like yours that teaches us that, theirs a huge difference between book knowledge (and sometimes a continuation no knowledge), and living the life of a diabetic 24/7 (not just between the hours of 9 & 10pm). And your right, were is the ADA? JDRF?? I am dumbfounded that 290+ million people globally have diabetes (it’s not just an American issue), and yet the world is just as stupid about it as ever!!! Why?? I could imagine the crap that goes on in other countries…
Remember folks - this was in the New York Post. While odds are high the guys had some run in with the transit police, and was probably denied his civil rights, this rag in no way represents the truth.
Don’t promote hype, myth or BS about our condition or the disease. And don’t believe everything you read.
You know you have a very good point. I have to admit, even myself I wondered… Why would you just discover your sugar is too high, and take an insulin shot, inside a moving train? Or even outside a train were trillions upon trillions of germs and bacteria live? It does seem odd in my opinion, maybe he was looking for an excuse, however, the cops should have given him the benefit of the doubt. However, truth be told, if that kid would have died, Bloomberg would see to it that nothing happens to any of the cops involved.
Yogirajj, you say: “Why would you just discover your sugar is too high, and take an insulin shot, inside a moving train?”
It happened to me zillion times, not only in train, but in all possible and for you impossible situations and places. I’m surprised that any insulin-dependent diabetic may find that weird.
I’ve injected countless times in public. Unless you’re in an sterile room, there’s bacteria everywhere & it’s not going to cause an infection through injection. Injecting in a train is no more risky than injecting in any other place.
thats nuts i live in nyc and i shoot myself up all the time and i get looks from people and stuff but never had a problem with the cops… they must have been real idiots to not realize he was taking insulin… drugs arent branded novolog or humalog lol id sue them if i was him!
Here’s a follow up from USA Today.
NEW YORK, NY, August 09, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ – Reibman & Weiner attorney, Michael Lumer, represents Juan Castillo, a 25 year old diabetic New Yorker who was arrested for putting his leg on a New York City subway seat so he could massage it after giving himself an insulin injection. After the arrest the police held Mr. Castillo for 30 hours before releasing him without charging him with a crime. During the entire 30 hours that he was in custody, the New York City Police deprived Mr. Castillo of his insulin. As a result of this cruel and unusual treatment, Mr. Castillo was hospitalized for three days, became totally dehydrated, went into a coma and almost died. The New York City Police violated Mr. Castillo’s civil rights and caused his diabetes to become so unstable that he is now on a wait list for a pancreas transplant – a new and risky procedure. Mr. Castillo’s treatment is the result of a callous and misdirected New York City Police Department policy that deprives diabetics and other detainees of life saving medications.
Ok I am a type 1 and I’ve always taken insulin shots whenever needed and if out in public I find a restroom and go into a stall to do it. But if necessary have taken the shot even at McDonald;s out in the open. I carry an insulin pen with me everywhere I go. It is very disturbing to hear that the police in NYC is so uneducated that they arrest a diabetic for doing what he is supposed to do to stay alive. However as for the article where it says his sugars were so out of wack that he went into a coma and is now on a pancreas donor list. That is bunk. I have been in a coma and a week or so in the hospital to fix it nada more.
A transplant? Really? Sounds like this particular diabetic is trying to bilk the city. Sorry not meant to be cold just honest.
Oh and btw I have gone without insulin for 30 hrs. didn’t die but didn’t eat either was in labor with my eldest son. This man does not treat his body right his sugars must be maxing.
And it was on our local news as well - a couple of stations.Apparently happened in 2009.
Pancreas transplant, really? I am sure this made his non-functioning pancreas function not more. Silly.
Sounds like a nice lawsuit is in order…
Might even be able to afford a pump after…
I hope he receives millions!
I find it very sad that we have to go into a filthy bathroom to inject something so sterile… At work I have refused to do this… I take my pen from fridge and inject in lunch room. I am not walking the entire lenghth of building to hide in a nasty bathroom for something that takes less than 15 seconds…
If I do go to bathroom, say in a resuraunt, I do it out of the courtisy for the person I am with, my choice. If there were rules against injecting at the table I would do it in defiance.
Last time I went to bathroom to inject trying to hold onto the cap and the cap to the needle, the cap to the pen fell on the urine soaked floor… Ummm you do the math if you think I picked the cap back up…
It is time to have a stick yourself in public day!
I guess I missed the part where he’s supposed to be on a pancreas donor list? If it says it somewhere, it’s not in this article…
I agree completely. I’m on the pump now, but when I was on MDI I would rarely leave the table (only say on a first date or a business lunch). You can’t find a more unsanitary place to injx than a restaurant bathroom, yuck!
Nothing surprises me in this day and age.
A link to various reasons why it is necessary to test and manage your diabetes in public (USA)
http://www.isletsofhope.com/pdf http://www.isletsofhope.com/pdf/faq-public-testing.pdf
Hey, that’s not a bad idea – “stick yourself in public day.”
I saw it on one of the posts I followed it’s link and I read it there. I laughed because I thought it made no sense at the time. Oh well if I find it again I will ccp it and post it so u can read it too. take care.
That is so bad nearly had me in tears.
See this is the article I read too." became totally dehydrated, went into a coma and almost died. The New York City Police violated Mr. Castillo’s civil rights and caused his diabetes to become so unstable that he is now on a wait list for a pancreas transplant " Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee told ya.