I had the worst day at work. My bs, of course, went soaring as the day wore on. I work with kids who are in trouble with the courts and some of them are in drug treatment residentials. I have a hard time dealing with these places because they often insist that the child be taken off of all meds. I found out today that this includes anti- diabetic meds.
I'm the Education case manager for a kid who has Type 1 and was court ordered into one of these drug treatment facilities. Before going in he was in our secured facility and receiving Advanian and insulin. When he was moved into the drug treatment he was removed from all meds and placed on a restricted diet by the "medical staff." He complained every day that he felt awful and the only time his bloodwork or bs were checked was on admission 23 days ago. They were at an "acceptable level" upon admission.
I saw him today and the boy was very sick. He was clearly in DKA. When he saw my pump he asked me if I had a meter with me. I have a Precision Xtra that also does ketones. Well we ran both tests and they both came back high. So more than 550 bg and off the scale ketones. I immediately informed the nurse who first had a fit that I let him test his blood and than told me that he was a type II diabetic according to their files and he would not get any meds.
I spent the rest of the day climbing all kinds of leadership ladders to get this kid removed from the facility and into a hospital. I can't believe the ignorance of this nurse and so-called doctor at this facility. They also went up the leadership ladder complaining that I let the kid test his blood and that he could have faked the whole thing to get out of drug treatment.
I get to spend the whole day tomorrow with internal affairs explaining my actions. But the kid was admitted to the local hospital and his bg came back at 1345!!! I know of no type II diabetic that can get their bg that high and he's been diabetic since he was 5. I found out that his medical file did say type I but because he was taking the oral with insulin they assumed it was type II.
They could have killed this kid and I'm the one explaining my actions. There's nothing like working for government!!
--Gail J Donohue