{"id":2843,"date":"2018-11-13T23:48:23","date_gmt":"2018-11-13T13:48:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/?post_type=wimr_news&p=2843"},"modified":"2024-09-30T18:26:29","modified_gmt":"2024-09-30T08:26:29","slug":"curing-type-1-diabetes","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/news\/curing-type-1-diabetes\/","title":{"rendered":"Curing type 1 diabetes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ruth Cummock lived for years with the fear that she might pass out because of complications she suffered from type 1 diabetes.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"
Ruth Cummock playing with her grandson<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>\n

Ruth\u2019s blood sugar level would sometimes fall without her realising \u2013 a situation that could potentially trigger seizures, loss of consciousness, brain damage or even death.<\/p>\n

Today, Ruth no longer fears the worst effects of her diabetes \u2013 all thanks to a pioneering clinical trial out of Westmead.<\/p>\n

Ruth was part of Australia\u2019s first successful trial of pancreatic islets transplants, a procedure that gives life-saving hope to high-risk diabetes sufferers by transplanting healthy pancreas cells into the recipient\u2019s liver.<\/p>\n

Ruth was a perfect candidate for the trial.<\/p>\n

Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 20, she spent most of her adult life undergoing twice-daily insulin injections. Although she managed to work and have a family life, her illness had worsened and she lost much of her eyesight.<\/p>\n

She underwent a single islet transplant followed by a double islet transplant \u2013 in which islet cells were isolated from two donor organs and transplanted in the one procedure.<\/p>\n

The result of the operations was remarkable. Ruth has been insulin free for 10 years now \u2013 an amazing result.<\/p>\n

Although she must still watch her diet and monitor sugar intake, she now leads an active healthy life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wasn\u2019t worried about the possible risks involved in the trial, I was just happy to have a chance to lead a normal life,\u201d Ruth said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWithout the transplants I probably would be totally blind today and, if I\u2019d had a really bad episode of hypoglycaemia unawareness, I might not be alive.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ruth Cummock lived for years with the fear that she might pass out because of complications she suffered from type 1 diabetes. Ruth\u2019s blood sugar level would sometimes fall without her realising \u2013 a situation that could potentially trigger seizures, loss of consciousness, brain damage or even death. Today, Ruth no longer fears the worst […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2844,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}}},"categories":[19],"class_list":["post-2843","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/2843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wimr.org.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}