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One of the saddest parts of this story is that decades of confusion could have been ended by checking glucose levels in these children at the hospital. This is
by idiot900 10y ago
One of the saddest parts of this story is that decades of confusion could have been ended by checking glucose levels in these children at the hospital. This is a basic standard of care but seems like Bihar is so underprovisioned that even this simple step doesn't happen.
- chimeracoder 10y ago> One of the saddest parts of this story is that decades of confusion could have been ended by checking glucose levels in these children at the hospital. This is a basic standard of care but seems like Bihar is so underprovisioned that even this simple step doesn't happen. It probably did happen, but we're talking about children who are already malnourished to begin with. Establishing a specific food as the cause of their low glucose levels as opposed to the effects of malnutrition is not as easy as simply checking for their glucose levels.
- idiot900 10y agoThis situation is easily distinguishable from hypoglycemia from starvation - the latter unlikely to happen in non-diabetic children who spent the day eating sweet fruit. Checking basic labs such as a blood glucose fingerstick - as would have happened at a properly provisioned hospital - would not identify the specific fruit but it may well have prevented these kids from dying, as the treatment is just to give sugar.