Woman With Autoimmune Disease Lands in ER After Misdiagnosis, Doctors ‘Dismissing’ Her

When Naomi Pineiro, 33, of Guayabo, Puerto Rico, went for routine blood work in late 2022, she wasn’t expecting anything to be wrong. Pineiro was active, doing CrossFit about five days a week, and she had no family history of diabetes. When her fasting glucose came back at 120 mg/dL, in the prediabetes range, she didn’t think much of it. “This must be a mistake,” Pineiro recalls telling herself. “I might have had ice cream the night before. Maybe I had a glass of wine.” But there were other signs that something wasn’t quite right. Pineiro was excessively tired and experiencing migraines and blurry vision. She had recently started a demanding job in corporate banking and assumed stress was the culprit. A few months later, Pineiro saw a nutritionist at work, who encouraged her to consult a doctor about her still-elevated blood sugar.