Insulin in Diabetic Coma, Complicating Pregnancy

The efficacy of insulin as an antidote for diabetic coma has been sufficiently well established to prompt Joslin1to state that "deaths from diabetic coma are unnecessary accidents that can be avoided by sensible treatment. If the patients die from coma at the present time, it is a disgrace to the medical profession." While the literature abounds in reports of cases of diabetic coma complicating various conditions, no instance has been found in which a well advanced pregnancy has had to be reckoned with along with the coma. The case here reported is of interest, therefore, because it deals with just this sort of situation. REPORT OF CASE Mrs. E. F., aged 42, Syrian, housewife, mother of five children, was brought into Providence Hospital, June 30, at 11 p. m., in a semicomatose condition. Her temperature was 97.4, the pulse was very weak and thready, with a rate of