DIABETICS TURN TO CANADA FOR RELIEF
Central Mass. man shops abroad just to survive
Karen Bartholomew and her son Carl Christie are constantly searching for affordable insulin — and they’re all too familiar with the panic that sets in when they haven’t found it days before Christie, a Type 1 diabetic, runs out — it happens every few months.
“With or without insulin I wonder if he’s going to be alive every day,” said Bartholomew, a Massachusetts native now living in Connecticut, whose son lives in central Massachusetts. “If he doesn’t answer the phone, I generally tend to think he might be dead.”
Christie, 28, with two young children, lost his insurance last year when he got divorced. He is currently unemployed and in the process of applying for Mass-Health. He needs two bottles of insulin every month, which he said costs at least $400 out of pocket, so he rations his supply to make it last as long as possible.
“I would rather run on a low amount than run out,” said Christie.
According to the American Diabetes Association, 27 percent of adult diabetes patients and 34 percent of juvenile patients rationed insulin last year.
“Rationing insulin can lead to serious complications and if not addressed, may lead to death,” said William T. Cefalu, the ADA’s chief scientific, medical and mission officer. “The first signs of inadequate insulin dosing and uncontrolled blood sugar includes nausea, vomiting, frequent urination, impaired mental focus and capacity, loss of consciousness, which can lead to coma and death.”
Bartholomew and Christie tried everything from buying insulin over the counter at Walmart to spending hours on the phone with area hospitals.
“I would go all the way up to the president of the hospital and you don’t get anything, you just don’t,” said Bartholomew.
Bartholomew, desperate to help her son, recently resorted to buying insulin from Canada, where prices are heavily regulated. They don’t know how long that source will be available to them.
“I was horrified thinking that he was going to run out of insulin so I did my best,” said Bartholomew. The bot-
tles from Canada cost about $60 each and Christie currently has about a month and a half supply left.
According to the FDA, buying drugs from a foreign country is illegal, however the agency makes exceptions for drugs that are for “personal use” and don’t impose an “unreasonable risk.”
Christie, who was diagnosed with diabetes when he was 16, has landed in the emergency room three times in the past three years for diabetes-related complications. Bartholomew was also hospitalized for high blood pressure, which she said was related to the stress of finding insulin for Christie.
“There’s a weird middle ground where you get stuck with no help whatsoever,” Christie said, referring to salary requirements to get on the Affordable Care Act, for which he is currently applying.
“People shouldn’t die in America because they don’t have insulin,” said Bartholomew.
Insulin rationing has also been at the forefront on a national level with Antroinette Worsham of Ohio testifying before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform last month — she lost her 22-year-old daughter, Antavia Worsham, to insulin rationing.
Worsham said Antavia, who was diagnosed with diabetes when she was 16, didn’t realize the severity of rationing insulin and died in her sleep.
“Come to find out, my baby was dead … I miss her, I miss her,” Worsham told the Herald.
“My daughter had a whole life ahead of her, she wasn’t in trouble, she did well in school, no criminal background. She was just out here trying to live with her diabetes,” said Worsham.
Worsham traveled in November to Cambridge, where insulin manufacturer Sanofi is located, with her daughter’s ashes, in protest of skyrocketing insulin prices. She has thrown herself into advocating for diabetes patients and pushing for transparency in the industry and an end to “price gouging.” Sanofi denies price gouging and adds that it tries to steer needy patients toward a financial assistance program.
Offering advice to other diabetes patients struggling to afford insulin, Worsham said to “go out to the black market, go out to another country.”
“It’s hard out here and that’s why I cry out, it’s hard living in America,” she said.