Adrian Brooking with his wife Julie and their son Oliver (Image: Adrian Brooking/SWNS)
A father with diabetes stopped breathing, leaving his wife terrified he had died, after she found him “stone cold and rock hard” in bed when his insulin pump failed during the night. Adrian Brooking, 55, has lived with type 1 diabetes since he was diagnosed as a teenager in 1984.
Six years ago, he moved away from giving himself insulin injections and began using an Omnipod 5 system — a glucose monitor connected to an insulin pump that is designed to deliver insulin automatically when needed. Adrian said the device had “been brilliant” and had caused no issues until the early hours of April 30, when his wife, Julie Brooking, 49, woke to find him unconscious, freezing cold and rigid in bed.
Julie and the couple’s son Oliver, 28, desperately attempted to revive Adrian while an ambulance was called. He was rushed to hospital, where medics discovered that the glucose monitor and insulin pump system had malfunctioned, releasing a large dose of insulin despite his blood sugar already being critically low.
Adrian’s blood sugar would normally be expected to fall between 4mmol/L and 7mmol/L, but it had crashed to just 0.8mmol/L — a level he described as “not compatible with life”. Julie’s chance awakening that night proved crucial, and doctors later told the family, from Clifton, Nottingham, that Adrian was “lucky to be alive” after he regained consciousness in resuscitation.
Julie, Adrian’s full-time carer, told Sell Us Your Story: “Luckily enough, I woke up when I did because I needed the loo. “When I first saw him, he was in a weird position and I joked ‘what position are you in now, you daft bugger?’
Adrian Brooking stopped breathing and his wife thought he was dead (Image: Adrian Brooking/SWNS)
“Then I realised something wasn’t right. I shook him and he was stone cold.
“I thought I’d lost him, I thought he was already gone. It’ll take months for his body to heal and get back to normal, but I’m grateful he is alive.”
Adrian added: “I don’t remember hardly anything that happened, just glimpses. It was worse for my wife and son, something life-changing that they will never forget.
“The doctors told me: ‘you’re the luckiest man in here, you shouldn’t be alive’. If it wasn’t for my wife, son and the paramedics, I wouldn’t be here now.”
Throughout his adult life, Adrian had battled to keep his diabetes under control — even suffering two haemorrhages behind his eyes more than 20 years ago — yet had experienced no further complications since beginning his Omnipod 5 treatment. He reported feeling perfectly well before retiring to bed that evening, having made the journey to Lincoln earlier that day for a choir rehearsal. During the night, however, the monitor malfunctioned, causing him to lose consciousness.
Adrian Brooking with his wife Julie (Image: Adrian Brooking/SWNS)
Julie said: “I shook him and he was stone cold. There was no response and he was rock hard.
“I knew then that it wasn’t good. I thought he was already gone.
“I ran to my son’s room and we dialled 999, but we couldn’t even move him. He was solid, like getting a piece of meat out of the freezer.”
The 999 call handler urged Julie and Oliver to attempt to lower Adrian to the floor in order to perform chest compressions after they could detect no heartbeat. Despite struggling to move him, Oliver managed to employ a ‘bear hug’ technique — which caused Adrian to release a gasp of air, rousing him back to semi-consciousness. Paramedics arrived shortly afterwards, administering glucose at the scene before he was rushed to Queen’s Medical Centre for emergency treatment.
Adrian said: “All I remember was seeing three faces above me and knowing I was in a situation I shouldn’t be in. They were the faces of my wife, son and one of the paramedics. Then I saw a metal lamp, which must have been in the back of the ambulance, and the feeling of going up a ramp, then I woke in resus.”
He received glucose and insulin to stabilise his blood sugar levels, while his overall condition was closely monitored. A saline drip was also administered due to severe dehydration, alongside antibiotics to reduce the risk of sepsis.
Two days later, Adrian was discharged to recuperate at home, and two months on he continues his recovery. He is now on tablets and blood thinners following the episode, which left him with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm.
The pump is currently under investigation by its manufacturer, though the cause of the malfunction remains unexplained. Adrian is also hoping to be reunited with the paramedics who helped save his life.
Adrian Brooking in hospital (Image: Adrian Brooking/SWNS)
He said: “Because I wasn’t really conscious, it’s difficult to understand what people are talking about. It was like an out-of-body experience. But I have a lot to be thankful for.”
Julie added: “Now I naturally wake up at 3am and roll over to check he is okay. You have to move on with life, but I would never want to go through something like that again.”
A spokesperson from Insulet, the manufacturer of Omnipod 5, said: “We are deeply concerned to hear about Mr Brooking’s experience and are grateful he received urgent medical help. We understand how much people rely on Omnipod every day to help manage their diabetes and we take any report of an adverse event extremely seriously.
“Our Customer Care team has been in contact with Mr Brooking and we are actively reviewing the report through our established post-market monitoring processes. Patient safety and product quality remain our highest priorities. We will share the results of the report with Mr Brooking when our review concludes and take appropriate action based on its findings.”
