A followup to this post/article about a couple that got stranded in California.
RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A woman stranded in her car for two weeks in the Southern California desert in May said she forgave her husband for making a wrong turn and was prepared to die with him.
“I told him, ‘Honey, we all make mistakes. We all make wrong choices.’ That’s all that was,” Dianna Bedwell said Friday after the memorial service for Cecil “Paul” Knutson, who died a week into the ordeal. “We had 29 wonderful years together. If we make it out, fine. If we don’t make it out, fine.”
Touching. Eight pounds of oranges must last a while, but I can’t imagine being diabetic and having nothing to eat but oranges and pie….thats like having a choice to either starve or eat radioactive cheeseburgers.
There’s a couple lessons in this story, and they’re really the same as in most of the other ones: let people know where you’re goin, your route, and pack some supplies.
Diabetic with pie and oranges? No hope of rescue? Hold out for as long as possible then eat it all and pass in your sleep. Sugar and no insulin for an insulin dependent diabetic means coma. Coma bad.
Just fyi if you’re ever trying to help a diabetic toward the light, the scenario you’re describing would be more likely to lead to hyperglycemia and DKA, a far more painful means of expiring than hypoglycemia. She’d be better off eating nothing.
Agreed, which is why if you can hold out with nothing and you’ve decided to end it all, you eat it all. If you’re insulin dependent and you eat a few oranges you’ll have trouble staying awake after a few oranges… Oranges and pie and its lights out.
Exactly. DKA is your body eating its own cells in a desperate attempt to shed the sugar by finding insulin.
I have a type 1 in the family…
Nightmares like this unfortunately story is exactly why I keep meds and food packed in bags no matter what we’re doing.everything we. Are we more than 30 mins from home? Then the bags are with us.
I knew of a couple who died of exposure in the desert. He took a short cut and got stuck in a gravel patch in a low spot on a dirt road. Nobody knew where they were. I visited the spot some weeks later with a family friend who was asked to locate the scene. You could still see the spot where the tires had dug a hole in the gravel, and you could see where he had burned a tire. Tie wrap ends were located a few hundred yards away where the recovery crew had secured the remains of the husband who had gone for help. It was a sad and lonely spot. The take away is to always let someone know where you are going to be, don’t travel on dirt roads if you can’t walk back, and don’t stop in a spot where you can easily get stuck.
The article doesn’t say, but could this be another example of people putting too much faith in the GPS?
It’s hard to believe that a former Marine didn’t bring along a map, among other things. He survived Korea, but didn’t remember his training regarding signaling?
I know…armchair quarterbacking never did any good.
Diabetics who eat pie and oranges are asking for trouble. I’m a T2 diabetic myself & think I responded to the first time this article was mentioned. No diabetic should leave home without proper food, water, & meds if needed. And knowing where you’re going would be a great help. Now that we’re older, my husband & I check in with each other or other family members when we’re on the road.