When I heard that Michelle Trachtenberg died of diabetes complications, my heart sank.
On February 26, the 39-year-old actress, best known for her roles as Dawn Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Georgina Sparks in Gossip Girl, and figure skater Casey in Ice Princess, was found ‘unconscious and unresponsive’ by police in Manhattan.
Now it has been determined that she died ultimately as a result of her diabetes mellitus, the City Office of Chief Medical Examiner told Deadline.
The coroner’s office initially said her cause of death would remain undetermined as her family blocked an autopsy on religious grounds, but a toxicology report shed some light on the circumstances
While we don’t know which type of diabetes Michelle was impacted by, the gut-wrenching circumstances surrounding her death hit me hard both as a type 1 diabetic and a lifelong fan of her work, having watched her star in Ice Princess when I was seven.
I was diagnosed with the autoimmune condition in 2015, after months of symptoms.
I was so exhausted that I’d come home from school every day and collapse into bed. I inexplicably dropped two dress sizes almost overnight – for which I was complimented and asked what diet I was on by an unassuming friend – and I had a constant, insatiable thirst.
Initially, my doctor dismissed my worries and diagnosed me with oral thrush.
Realising that a friend had previously experienced identical symptoms, it was only when my mum took me to the GP and demanded that they test my blood sugar that I finally received answers.
And as a somewhat naïve 17-year-old who thought I’d live with a bill of clean health forever, I was shocked to be told I had a serious condition.
From the GP’s surgery, I went straight to the hospital, where the specialist told me that if I came in any later, I might not have survived. I cried, counting my blessings.
And reading the circumstances surrounding Michelle’s death has left me reflecting on what it means to live with a condition that can be so relentless.
In the 10 years since I was diagnosed, it’s become increasingly apparent to me that people living with diabetes – in all their forms – are too often the butt of jokes.
We’re constantly misrepresented in the media, judged for our lifestyle choices, and interrogated about our medical history.
I’ve been asked whether I ‘was given too much sugar as a child’, if I have the ‘good type or the bad type,’ and I’ve had strangers on public transport question whether my insulin pump is a ‘nicotine patch.’
There are so many battles that are fought unsaid, and in silence. And at the same time, this should be a sign that it’s time to stop treating diabetes as a joke – and instead, call out the cruel punchlines that, time and time again, target people like me living with this reality.
According to the NHS website, type 1 diabetes ‘causes the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood to become too high. It happens when your body cannot produce a hormone called insulin, which controls blood glucose.’
As a result, those living with type 1 diabetes need to constantly monitor their blood glucose levels either through a manual finger prick test or via a continuous glucose monitor (CGM), which is worn on the arm and tests glucose through the tissue.
They also need to give themselves insulin either by injecting through a needle, or by wearing an insulin pump.
Left untreated, type 1 diabetes can quickly develop into diabetic ketoacidosis (known as DKA) – as without insulin, the body can’t properly convert sugar into energy, so instead, it breaks down fat by releasing ketones, making the blood acidic. This situation can be life-threatening.
According to the Diabetes UK website definition, type 2 diabetes involves ‘high blood sugar levels due to your body not making enough of a hormone called insulin, or the insulin it makes not working properly.’
Importantly, type 1 and type 2 diabetes are very different – and, despite societal misconceptions, type 2 isn’t always preventable, or caused by diet and lifestyle.
There’s also gestational diabetes (high blood sugar that develops during pregnancy and typically disappears post-birth)
