Inside a diabetes nightmare
Loved ones of a man who died a lingering death share his story as a warning to others, writes Oliver Lewis.
Before her partner Earl Ropata died of health problems caused by diabetes, Patty Wunder asked if he had any regrets.
‘‘I wish I would’ve taken my health more seriously,’’ he replied.
Ropata died in December 2018, and Wunder has now decided to share his story to highlight the potential consequences of type 2 diabetes.
‘‘It seems that everybody has diabetes or knows somebody with diabetes, but nobody sees diabetes,’’ Wunder said.
‘‘People don’t see it, they just throw the word around but they don’t understand the severity of what happens when you don’t take it seriously.’’
An estimated 230,000 New Zealanders have type 2 diabetes, a condition where the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or resists the effect of insulin, resulting in high levels of glucose in the blood.
If it isn’t managed well, it can lead to a range of health problems including kidney failure, heart disease, nerve damage and loss of vision.
By the time Ropata flew to the United States to meet Wunder in 2006, he was already injecting insulin to manage his diabetes.
The couple met online when Wunder was living in Chicago. Ropata was charming and funny, she said, a hard worker and a talented musician.
By the end of their third phone conversation, she had written in her diary: ‘‘I think I’m moving to New Zealand’’. She arrived in Christchurch that September.
From the outset, Wunder said it was a struggle to get Ropata to eat healthier food.
‘‘If I had a million dollars I could put it in the vege drawer and he’d never find it,’’ she said.
As his health problems worsened, Wunder found it more and more frustrating that Ropata wouldn’t change his lifestyle to better manage his diabetes.
‘‘The hardest thing is the frustration that somebody doesn’t want to fight for their own life.’’
Ropata had to deal with numerous health problems caused by or associated with his diabetes, including heart failure, kidney failure, nerve damage which resulted in him losing feeling in his feet and fingers and circulation problems which contributed to the loss of his legs.
He was devastated when he could no longer use his fingers to play guitar.
Wunder, who lives in Waikuku Beach in North Canterbury, shared graphic photographs on social media of Ropata in hospital showing the rotting, black skin on his feet and legs, both of which were amputated a month before he died.
Ropata, who died aged 47, spent much of his final months in Christchurch Hospital, where he went for dialysis, or in a hospice.
It was a traumatising time for his daughter, Chloe Ropata, 20.
‘‘It was extremely difficult for me, watching Dad eat the way he did,’’ Chloe said.
‘‘I could see where it was leading and in the last year of his life I could physically see him disappearing. Leading up to his death I suffered with pretty bad mental health. I was pretty much watching my dad die a slow painful death.’’
Despite the efforts of his friends and family, Chloe Ropata said her father never seemed to take his diabetes seriously.
Sugar was an addiction for him, and he would try and hide the junk food he ate.
She recalled trying to hide unhealthy food from him as a child. By speaking out, she hoped to make people realise how serious diabetes was and to encourage them to change their eating habits.
University of Otago professor in medicine and human nutrition Jim Mann said diet was important when it came to preventing and managing type 2 diabetes.
Obesity was the biggest risk factor, so a diet low in saturated fat with lots of vegetables, fruit and whole grains was recommended.
The epidemic of diabetes was tied to the obesity epidemic, Mann said. Studies showed that someone diagnosed with prediabetes (where blood sugar levels are higher than normal) could dramatically lower their risk of developing diabetes by reducing their excess body weight by 5 to 10 per cent.
Mann said a reasonable number of people with type 2 diabetes required insulin, but some people were able to manage it through diet and exercise.
‘‘If you get someone who has type 2 diabetes and goes for a 10-15 minute walk after a meal you can reduce blood sugars significantly,’’ he said.
‘‘There is no doubt that even people who are down the path of diabetes, they will benefit from changing their lifestyle.’’
‘‘The hardest thing is the frustration that somebody doesn’t want to fight for their own life.’’ Patty Wunder