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Fabio F.

Mr. Fabio F. lives alone and has his fragile health well under control. He tries to avoid hospitalization as much as possible. He came to the intensive care unit because he had lost control. He was sedated but not put into an induced coma. He compares those three days in the ICU to an earlier stay of one month in 2012. The stories are intertwined.

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Experience of conflict

Mr Fabio F. is used to managing his diabetes himself, which sometimes brings him into conflict with the clinic team.

TRANSCRIPT

E : So the first one was the first time I was // apart from at the beginning in England, but the first time I was hospitalised with hyperglycaemia, I recognised some of the symptoms of ketoacidosis: vomiting, stomach ache, headache, dryness, etc., and then the big difference when you have hyperglycaemia you reach a point where you have to be aggressive with the insulin, you really have to go for it to bring the blood sugar down. Because the whole body wasn't functioning properly, so they doubled all the dosages, they doubled up with pens, slow and then fast too. But the difference between the two, and I had to tell them a bit about this, there was a protocol, in intensive care there was no problem. With a hypo or with my state of health, because if I had a hypo, they would go and see the cardiologist, they were there, the nurse was there. But with the double dosage, they sent me to the hospital where there was no longer a protocol to closely monitor my blood sugar level. And one day, it wasn't in intensive care, but in the hospital, I went to bed, (they) wanted to measure the blood level only before I had something to eat again, not before going to bed and I demanded to have one before going to bed. There were 4 of us with a 15 slowness in my arm, so I knew I was going into hypo(glycaemia). Obviously, I hadn't eaten and then I had to go and see the head nurse to explain the situation and finally, they gave me something to eat. And then they took care of me. I : And that was between leaving intensive care the first time // E : To go to the hospital, yes. I : And the hospital. And so there was no communication, is that right? E : There was / the protocol was wrong in my opinion. I : The protocol was wrong, where? E : They should have had a protocol that would have left me in general hospitalisation, but that wasn't the case because I had an aggressive / aggressive insulin dosage. So the second time it was different, luckily they changed the protocol, they only gave me the fast-acting one. I : Was that in intensive care? E : Yes, they only gave me the fast-acting one and so after two hours there was no more insulin. There was no more / so we saw the effect, we could adjust the dosage, but with the slow-acting one we can't. Once it's injected, we can't remove it. So I / luckily, they changed the protocol and it's much more flexible with the fast one, either intravenous or with infusion, and then I had much fewer fears.

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