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Comment by chemicalsnakes | Hacker News Reader

Uh, okay, she didn’t advocate for herself on the phone and darkly alludes to not knowing what could have happened if she’d told them she wasn’t at her home and needed her replacement pump sent to another address. I think they would’ve sent it to the hotel without a problem. Her takeaway is that she should have been “meaner” on the phone, but I think just honestly expressing her situation would cover it.

And “I don't think it's possible to live without resentment for the technology keeping you alive.” This plus all the stuff at the top of the post about how she hates manufacturers of insulin pumps and she’s trapped. I have lived in a very developed country, and I currently live in a least-developed country. I am pretty grateful for the technology that keeps life in the developed world safe and comfortable.

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Blaming her is not the right call on this.

The technology is absolutely amazing for the quality of life it’s given us, especially those with medical conditions, but the failure of technology in these scenarios can lead to hospitalization or death.

The customer care line requesting information about a plan means the patient’s care in a will-be life-threatening scenario was not prioritized.

Deprioritizing patient care when death is a possibility is a grim outcome regardless of where you live.

I didn’t take their comment to be about blame, it’s more about a pragmatic view of what’s going to be more effective for an individual. Sure, you can tell your diabetic daughter that the world should be one way, and rant and rave about it all you want, but none of that will keep her alive.

It means the exact opposite. It is like when the tow truck operator asked if you are stopped in a safe location. If you say you have a backup to the pump, then they know there is negligible risk. Its why they asked.

The problem is that when she was asked if she had a plan, she didn't give a thought-out answer. If she had said "no" -- which at that point was actually the truth -- it likely would have triggered something in the customer support rep's script that would have fixed the situation damn-near immediately.

It's annoying that this is how it works. It would be great if the customer support rep could be better trained, akin to a medical technician's knowledge at least when it comes to the medical condition at hand. But that sort of thing is just not reasonable to expect in the world we live in. Someone with a chronic condition needs to advocate for themselves. Even just "I'm not at home and need you to send the new pump to my hotel" would have likely fixed the entire problem.

I don't know if this is about "blame" or something else entirely. To me, this was very instructive and reminded me that we need to take charge of our own care. Even though it sounds like the author was never in any real danger (by her own admission), this entire situation could have been avoided with a single sentence, one that's incredibly reasonable and not difficult to say.

(I'm also baffled by her incredibly hostile attitude toward people who make insulin pumps. I can absolutely understand being angry at the idea that you need a piece of technology made by a third party in order to live. But calling the people who make that technology -- technology that has worked for her for 25 years before the first problem came up -- her "mortal enemies" crosses a line for me.)

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