It was one in a million...
A doctor with the UH School of Medicine considers herself lucky to be here after a mysterious illness nearly a quarter century ago.
The episode led Dr. Tamar Hoffmann to better appreciate what her patients might be feeling.
Tamar Hoffman has been a doctor for three decades.
But in 1985 the tables were turned. She was the patient after years of troubling, sometimes dangerous symptoms.
"I don't know if I drove through red lights or if the red lights automatically stopped me, I was going automatic pilot. I was driving and I didn't know I was driving," Tamar recalls.
Other symptoms--fainting and sweating...
"I thought I was under stress. Maybe I didn't have enough sleep. Maybe I was overworked. It didn't dawn on me that the sugar could be low because it's a rare thing."
It's called differential diagnosis, one of many things that young would be doctors learn at medical schools like here in Kakaako...
Doctor Hoffmann's physicians made up a list of things which could be causing her symptoms, starting with the most common.
"In medical school we're taught if you hear a gallop you look for a horse, you don't look for a zebra," explained Dr. Terry Shinatani of U.H. Medical School.
But a zebra is just what it was...
"One in a million....Yes."
A tumor residing in her pancreas.
A tumor called an insulinoma because it produces insulin.
"Insulin is the hormone that lowers sugar. So when we eat and there is sugar, glucose in our meal insulin is released to let the sugar go into the cells," explained Dr. Hoffman.
"Too much of it will cause you to pass out because what will happen is your blood sugar will drop," said Shinatani.
The tumor was removed and there have been no problems since. The doctor made wiser by what she survived.
"Maybe the most important thing is to listen to your body. Your body is trying to tell you something. It starts whispering very quietly, and if you don't listen the whisper becomes louder and louder until it screams," said Hoffman.