He's an extremely brittle diabetic who can't tolerate fast-acting insulin. When pharmas quit making animal NPH (slowest-acting) and later quit importing it, they all started making fast-acting artificial insulin, because about 95% of insulin-dependent diabetics require fast. In the years since, they've brought out many "designer" insulins, but all of them are too fast. A few years ago, the FDA declared animal insulin 'Illegal," claiming it hadn't been adequately tested. Gimme a break: millions of lives had been saved over decades with animal insulin, both NPH (slow) and R (fast). We buy insulin at great trouble and expense from a British pharma that still makes it...but, since it's illegal, no care facility or caregiver can use it. He was in the local hospital for five days last year...without any insulin, his blood sugar ran over 400 (extremely high). It was almost two months before he could reason, knew where he was, etc. Gotta love the US pharmas that refuse to make just one kind of slow-acting artificial (instead of all the trendy "designer" insulins)...and the FDA, looking out for our best interests--not!