What happens if you accidentally inject yourself with air instead of insulin?

Air is only dangerous when it enters the vein. There's all this hype about air bubbles causing you to die. This is called an air embolus, and if an air bubble reaches your lungs you very well could die. However, the amount of air has to be a lot! Not tiny little air bubbles...

You have absolutely nothing to worry about. Notice that the air has to be injected into the vein. Insulin is always injected into the subcutaneous (fat) tissue. Even if she did inject a whole insulin syringe full of air into herself, it would have gone into her fatty tissue, not her vein, and therefore poses no threat. If she doesn't know if she took her insulin though, she needs to check her blood sugar often to make sure that her sugar doesn't get too high.

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Very likely nothing will happen, except that her blood sugar may be a bit high from underdosing her insulin.

Insulin is injected into fat. Not muscle or veins or arteries, so its not dangerous to inject a bit of air by accident. Even a full syringe is not likely to cause any serious reaction, other than the high blood sugar from not getting her insulin.

It might cause infection or irritation, but its not likely. The air will be absorbed by the body over time.

To help your mom, try to avoid distracting her while she is doing her injection. If you have younger brother and sisters, try to get them to stay quiet while she does this. It does require some concentration.

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What happens if you accidentally inject yourself with air instead of insulin?

The other day, my mom was not feeling well, and so she was not thinking clearly, and got distracted while preparing her insulin. She thinks she might have actually forgot to put any insulin into the syringe! But she had pulled the syringe back enough to allow the air in, so she would have...

Injecting Air Into Muscle

The air is not going to affect her. You would have to inject a whole lot more air than an insulin syringe can hold to do any harm. However, it is dangerous if your mom did not get the proper dose of insulin that she needed. Her blood glucose readings could be sky high. Prolonged high readings can be very dangerous, even deadly.

I'm guessing she's injecting the insulin in the muscle not the vein. There are rumors of air killing people if it's injected into the vein, but I believe that's pretty much just mostly rumor if you do a little research. It's not good though.

As for air into the muscle, talk to her Dr. Give them a call as soon as you can and ask. Chances are she'll be just fine, but you have real worries here that need to be answered. Give her Dr. a call and make sure you get an answer. If needbe, ask the nurse there. They are usually more available. Leave a message for the Dr. to call you back if needbe, after talking to the nurse.

I'm almost blind now from diabetes, I also live all by myself and fill my own syringes. I have air in them occasionally and asked my doc he said as long as the air is not being shot into the vein it will not kill you. I inject air bubbles all the time for years. I've never had any problems from it. Actually the doc is more concerned I'm not getting all my insulin if there's air bubbles.

Nothing bad will happen because you are injecting the insulin into the tissue.....not a vein or artery. I have done it once or twice while trying to multitask. I also asked the doctor about it when she was showing me how to inject myself with insulin, and I have inquired about it with a few other doctors I had to visit. The answer was only if you inject air into an artery or vein. NOT TO WORRY

He has absolutely nothing to worry about. Several respondents have suggested that injecting air into a vein may lead to serious problems. This is a very old myth. It has been amply demonstrated that it is not possible to injection enough air into a vein to cause any harm. I wish you both the very best of health and happiness and in all things may God bless. JR