No wonder diabetic patients are so scared of insulin injections!

We all know that Mediacorp Drama programs act as important modes of information delivery to the people. I mean the government uses it to explain Trade Union, Tripartite Wage Adjustment issues etc. So why not protray medical issues properly? "The Ties that Bind" was one such drama serial that talked about the wage adjustments after SARS. But from the way they dramatized a particular scene makes me wonder why MOH doesn't take offence and issue advisories to Mediacorp not to perpetuate

I was watching the repeat telecast of "The ties that bind" , a Mediacorp drama serial starring Chen Liping, Huang Wenyong, Cynthia Koh, Joanne Peh and others.

Yesterday's episode revealed how Cynthia Koh's character was diagnosed to have gestational diabetes (diabetes when pregnant). The gynaecologist told her that she would have to take insulin injections. Cynthia's character was very sad after hearing this and called her husband to cry about it. And the husband told her "if you don't dare to give yourself the injections, then I'll do it for you. But I'm very busy tonight. Hopefully I can finish soon and come back early"

The next scene showed Cynthia's character feeling dizzy. And she went on to use the Glucometer to check her blood glucose level. Except the way she did the test was WRONG. She was using the Roche ADVANTAGE system and you usually put the meter strip into the machine FIRST then apply the blood on the strip! She put the blood on the strip then inserted it into the machine! Anyway this error was not as scary as the misconception the next scene protrayed!

(Point to note : usually if you are diabetic and feeling dizzy, it is likely due to LOW blood glucose levels rather than high)

The next scene showed a teary Cynthia taking out her insulin, putting it into a 5ml syringe with a long and big needle and trying to inject it into her ARM VEIN!!!!!!!!!!

Basically it looked like this :



Yes. It looked like she was a drug addict trying to inject insulin into her vein! For dramatic effect they showed the huge needle, her popping vein and her expressions of excruciating mental anguish! Just like a drug addict!

No wonder diabetics are so fearful of being told they need insulin injections! They picture putting huge needles into their veins like drug addicts!!! Mediacorp is doing MOH and the population no favours with such blatant misrepresentations! We should sue them!

To set the record straight, diabetics inject SMALL amounts (ranging from 0.1 to 0.2ml)of insulin using small 1ml syringes and very very fine needles into the SKIN (not veins) around the abdomen or thigh area.



It is rather less terrifying and less painful than how the drug addicts do it!

Here are the pics to illustrate my points.



This picture shows the different sizes of syringes and the needles. The smallest one is what diabetics use for their insulin jabs.

The needle and syringe that Cynthia Koh's character used looked like this:



In reality the one we used looks like this :



And the procedure can be done by little kids!



I think Mediacorp has a responsibility to at least get overall medical facts right. I can understand the small stuff, but misrepresenting how insulin injections are given and scaring patients away is irresponsible of them!