How Isaac Newton Lost His Marbles and more medical mysteries, marvels by Jim Leavesley

Author:Jim Leavesley [Biro, George]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-7304-9241-2
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 1999-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

The respected Medical Journal of Australia was also negative:

it is extremely unlikely that all the manifestations of human diabetes mellitus could be permanently kept in abeyance by insulin.

It predicted: ‘hundreds of diabetics … hastening to their graves…’

Some doctors feared that insulin would lower blood-sugar levels too much. For example, Sydney University’s Professor of Medicine did not even mention insulin when lecturing on diabetes in 1923.

But Dr Wilkinson hailed insulin as ‘the greatest discovery of modern medicine’. By 1924 it was standard treatment for young people with diabetes. However, the severely restricted diets continued as well, and acute diabetic ketosis (chemical crises) still claimed many lives. To meet the demand, CSL staff found further sources of the chemical, such as frozen pancreas from interstate abattoirs. They also worked towards extracting purer insulin.

In Canada one of Bantings first patients called insulin ‘unspeakably wonderful’. This praise applies equally to the efforts of the Australians who produced it so quickly and reliably, and to the medicos who used it. They saved the lives of many dying children and young adults.

Phyllis Adams of Mosman in Sydney was five when she developed diabetes in 1921. By late 1922 she was very ill and weighed only about 9 kg. Her daily diet was reportedly whey, a teaspoon of butter and one lettuce leaf.

Her father Henry read about Banting’s work and wrote to him in Canada. A ship’s purser brought her insulin from Canada, with Henry on a tugboat meeting the ship in mid-harbour. Phyllis was waiting on the wharf with their doctor who injected her on the spot.

So Phyllis became the first patient in Australia to receive insulin. She had three injections a day, first by her GP, and later by her parents. She improved at once. Phyllis has led an active, full life. By 1992 she had been on insulin for 70 years, probably a world record.

(GB)

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