1 BB'r personally, 2 BB'rs through other sources, 2 non-BB'rs personally, and numerous non-BB'rs through other sources (stories relayed to me from friends in the medical profession). Nationwide, I couldn't say how many people die each year due to insulin overdose, but I am sure the stats are available.
While the percentage of insulin using BB'rs who die due to overdose are low, we are quickly approaching a turning point in the world of BB'ing. In days past (the 90's) insulin was used primarily by either professsional BB'rs or national-level BB'rs...and by a much smaller number of people in general. Most of the guys back then took the time to educate themslves before jumping into the drug...and were well aware of its potential dangers.
However, just within the last few years...we have seen a huge surge in use by beginning and intermediate level BB'rs...many of whom are just kids. They are being taught that the dangers of insulin are severely over-exagerated (in some ways they were)...that you have to be a moron to kill yourself with insulin...that you have to try and kill yourself with insulin in ordee to die...and many other similar sentiments all implying the same thing, which is that insulin is a very safe, benign drug which is very unlikely to kill you no matter what you do. This may sound funny to some, but I assure you this belief system is being propogated all over the boards by ignorant people, who take the comments of the educated out of context, and in the process, encourage potential users to use irresponsibily.
As we see more and more people beginning to use the drug...and with the percentage of irresponsible, ambitious, uneducated, immature users growing by leaps and bounds, we are naturally going to start seeing more pepple running into problems. Even educated, responsible diabetics who have many years of experience with the drug and know how their bodies respond, occasionally die due to overdose. This is because an OD can take place even when the individual does everything right, as circumstances/situations can arise which are outside of the individual's control. If even these people can die in fairly large numbers in the U.S. every year, how much more likely are the uneducated, irresponsible, immature users likely to encounter problems?
The scary thing is that we have just recently starting to witness a rise in the number of users who belong to this demographic....and I bet the number of users who fit this bill will continue increase...perhaps as much as 10-fold between the mid-2000's and 2015. Insulin has lost its taboo...and everyone from 1st time cyclers to long-term competitive BB'rs are using it. So, while insulin is a fairly safe drug for the responsible, educated individual (although risk will always remain), it is not nearly as safe for those people on the other end of the spectrum.