Horror Story: Ways for a trapped character to die via lack of regular medical intervention?

Research asthma and asthma inhalers.
Let's see, the character is under a lot of stress which could trigger an asthma attack, without access to an inhaler, there might be several attacks over a period of hours.
It could be good if there were something the character had to do that caused exertion( Running, holding a door shut or open, holding someone else down to prevent them from harming either themselves or someone else. )

Yeah. That could kill somebody.

Joe(and it could be sudden- in the middle of a conversation)Nation

Heart attack would be another one....doesn't linger for 3 days though.
Perhaps an unattended stroke could be prolonged for several days and then
another massive embolism takes the final blow.

Calamity (I could write a horror story too) Jane

I like the asthma because of the stress trigger, and that certainly applies here. I'm going to have to study how often asthma is actually deadly to see if it's realistic.

Heart attack isn't a bad idea, but I would like it to be more something that is directly caused by being trapped. Meaning both with diabetes and asthma the person would have a treatment with them which could run out and then because they are trapped without their treatment the trapping directly kills them. A heart attack would be just something that coincidentally happened at the same time as they were trapped. There's a general rule of thumb which is good: you can't have two coincidences in a script. Being trapped is 1. So the rest of the deaths need to come logically from the trapping, can't come from another outside agent.

Maybe a bit sudden, but what about a brain aneurysm.

Staph infection?

Lots of infections could work -- trivial with antibiotics, easily deadly without.

That would do it...if it's a flesh eating bacteria! Otherwise it would take too long I guess with a regular staph infection.

Alleric to peanut butter, and someone accidently smashes open a peanut butter cracker packet, and they can't get all the crumbs, as some of them go under a very heavy object.

Death by Peter Pan.

Way to go Skippy!!

First off thanks for all the thoughts.
I think I might not have been clear enough in my explanation though:
The condition needs to be a pre-existing condition: such as: asthma, diabetes, etc... But it can't be something that anybody would die of any time soon... So diabetes can kill but that's years down the road.
The condition needs to require regular treatment: such as insulin injections, inhaler, or a pill/medication.
Therefore when the treatment runs out because they are trapped it causes death. Therefore it was the being trapped that killed them.
Although strokes and heart attacks are certainly ways to die it requires another outside force to trigger it. And it would have a good chance of killing them whether they were trapped or not. Meaning it's an independent event. Being trapped and running out of treatment is entirely depending on the trapping.
A peanut spills is definitely interesting but again it the idea of it's another independent event. The events can't be independent.

If the infection was pre-existing, that could work.

If the character was trapped midway through a course of antibiotics, say.

AIDS/ HIV+, too. People are living quite well with drugs now, but without the drugs would die. Not sure how quickly though, probably not quick enough for your scenario.

Lots of good ideas. I think that the scenario with the asthma would work the best.
The character is under extreme stress, which would tend to exacerbate an asthmatic condition. Couple that with a lack of an inhaler, and he might very well die.

Emphysema would be a disease where the person dies rather quickly without an oxygen tank around, quickly but very painfully though!

I agree I'm leaning toward the asthma. We'll knock off Signs. But that was like a decade and half ago. :-)

The cool thing for you is the teen can be either male or female AND be a star athlete - top swimmer, top sprinter, top cross country runner- the kind of character one would least expect to be the first to go.

Please let it be the whiny skinny princess (near Olympic status ice skater) who has already told all of the rest of group what pathetic wimps they are.

Note: asthma can be triggered by food allergies,~~lobster, nuts.
I don't know but wouldn't it be great if caviar was a trigger ??? heh heh .

Joe(heh heh eh heh)Nation

A hemophiliac who has cut himself while trying to escape. Horror, pools of blood... just a thought.

My first thought was asthma. Stress could certainly trigger an attack. If it's a major attack, someone could die even with medication. (Most asthmatics carry around inhalers.) Hospitalization and special treatment would be required.

Some kind of allergy could also work--maybe more quickly. A bee sting? The allergic reaction would have to be respiratory.

BTW, I can provide some specifics on the asthma attack.

Lost did an episode where someone almost died of an asthma attack.

Asthma is a tricky disease. Folks have died in emergency room parking lots because they couldn't decide if they needed to go in.