Technology is saving a little girl's life through artificial pancreas development. No more finger pricks and checking sugar levels every two hours. Parents receive Godsend news just as they are at their wits' end trying to manage their six-year-old child’s illness.
Charlotte Abbott-Pierce was a normal little girl full of life and spunk until she began showing symptoms of an underlying disease. She became thirsty, lethargic after eating, and needed to use the bathroom frequently.
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Concerned about these strange health developments, her parents took her to the doctor only to be handed what seemed like a death sentence. Charlotte has Type 1 diabetes. Her parents took the new diagnosis in stride and committed to ensuring her blood sugars stayed in the normal range.
But that meant these two full-time working parents were checking her sugar levels every two hours. That also meant no one in their little family was getting sleep at night. They would take turns waking up Charlotte for finger pricks and insulin shots.
When doctors asked the family to participate in a trial for this new type of technology to manage their daughter’s diabetes, they thanked God. So, what is this new technology? It’s the development of an artificial pancreas. It’s a sensor health professionals insert under the skin.
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It works by taking continuous reads of blood glucose and then it sends the information to the insulin pump which automatically adjusts levels saving Charlotte more than ‘23,000 insulin injections and 52,000 finger-prick blood tests’ which is what she would have endured before the age of 18. Charlotte is only one of 200 kids participating in the pancreas technology trial.
Ange Abbott-Pierce said, “Before the hybrid closed loop system was fitted, my husband and I would be up every two hours every night having to check Charlotte’s blood sugars and most times giving insulin, sometimes doing finger pricks or dealing with ketones due to quick rises in blood sugar. This was really hard as we both work full-time.”
So, the development of this artificial pancreas came as a huge blessing to the family. They say it was a “godsend to us as we were at our wits’ end with worry, not being able to catch the highs before they got dangerous.”
And now Charlotte gets to be a kid. She can go to sleepovers and playdates whereas before, she couldn’t.
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“She loves days out with her friends and sleepovers, but we had to stop these as soon as she was diagnosed because other people couldn’t manage her diabetes,” Ange said.
If the trial for this new artificial pancreas development is successful, millions of people with diabetes will be able to live a normal life without the complications, illnesses, and risks that come from living with Type 1 diabetes. It makes us all the more thankful to God for giving us the ability to create technology to improve our lives.
Ultimately our God is the God who heals. He can bind up our wounds and He can heal through miracles.
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But He can also heal by helping us create life-saving devices like this artificial pancreas. We can praise God for this incredible breakthrough in the medical field. And we hope Charlotte will continue to stay healthy and get to do all the fun things as a happy, healthy, child!
"Heal me, Lord, and I will be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise." Jeremiah 17:14
h/t: Good News Network
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