Diabetes and recent deaths: Remembering that there are people behind the stories

I ran across the blog post If They Only Had a Brain. Or a Heart from Six Until Me today and I knew I had to write a blog post here on WEGO Health about it. Kerri wrote a fantastic blog post. I agree with her completely that the media need to take into account that they should be A. giving out accurate information and B. that behind the story of the death is a person and a family. I think that the media outlets that she was writing to only care about really their bottom line and the whole human element of the story will never even be a consideration for them (But as any journalism student in journalism 101 knows, it should be). But for the rest of us health bloggers and health activists, this is something that we need to keep in the forefront of our minds at all times. And this is a good reminder for us all.

The two recent celebrity deaths of Brittany Murphy and Casey Johnson both site "diabetes" as a possible cause of death. The fact that both of these women were very young and supposedly otherwise healthy makes the deaths very tragic and very scary for those who live with diabetes. It starts to send questions through ones mind of "Am I going to die young"? or "Can I expect a shorter life expectancy because of my type 1 diabetes"? If you have diabetes, I'm sure you've had these thoughts before. But these types of news stories bring everything back up to the surface and can be frightening. One report stated that Brittany Murphy had Topamax next to her bedside and the outlet that I heard about it on made a HUGE deal over the Topamax. I'm on Topamax to prevent migraines. Ellen did a post about black box warnings on this type of prescription not too long ago. I know it has it's issues. I've talked to my doctor about the risk and side effects. But the show made such a huge issue of her taking the drug that it did kind of make me nervous. It's this type of tabloid reporting that Kerrie was talking about in her blog post. I got quite a few phone calls from well meaning friends and family asking me if I was sure that Topamax was safe for me after that show.

And that's the other affect this type of reporting or writing has. It upsets friends and family of someone with a similar disease. In the blog post The Death of Casey Johnson on the d-life, one mom worries about her own sons mortality due to his type 1 diabetes. She writes "When I come across stories like this – stories of young people with diabetes dying, the hair on the back of my neck stands up. I pray I’ll find some sort of footnote to explain why and how this could happen to someone so young. I need to take my son out of the equation". I know I feel that way about my own son. When I read or hear of someone dying from anaphylactic shock from food allergies, I'm always looking for another reason. Or I get judgmental and think "Well maybe they didn't have an EPI Pen". I'm not trying to fault the person, I'm trying to make myself feel better. No parent wants to think of their child in mortal danger, or dying young. It's the stuff of nightmares.

Other insightful posts about the recent deaths and diabetes:
The Casey Johnson Tragedy - Growing Up With Type 1 Diabetes - from Diabetes 24/7: This post is so thoughtful and so insightful. It not only talks about Casey, but about how growing up with diabetes affects the diabetes community as a whole - parents and children.

Brittany Murphy on tudiabetes - A discussion among the members about her untimely death and the possibility that she had been misdiagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Casey Johnson: The Fear In All Of Us from Diabetes Mine - Yes, how can you have type 1 diabetes and not be affected by this story? It truly is a tragedy.

So as bloggers and health activists we too can remember the point of Kerri's post and make sure that we do have brains and hearts. We can learn from tragedies. But we need to remember the human element behind the story. Being a health activist holds us to a different standard than the tabloid journalist. It's a higher standard. But we are human too and sometimes we may not realize that our thoughts and opinions can sting also.

Remember to write the facts

Try not to judge

Keep in mind that you are writing about people

And that these people have family and friends who love them

Write as you would want to be written about

Did your community talk about the recent deaths and the diabetes connection? Is a shortened life expectancy due to diabetes a concern for you or other diabetics in your community? Do you have any suggestions for dealing with this issue?

Visit the T-1 Diabetes Group leave your comments or to start your own conversation.