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Reviewed By: Varnada Karriem-Norwood,
SOURCES: 2008 Medical Reference from Medstar Television. Daniel Brennan, MD, Transplant Nephrologist, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO.
© 1999-2011 Medstar Television
Going for a drive seems pretty ordinary. But complications from type 1 diabetes nearly stole that from Michael Alewelt.
I lost my driver's license. I was demoted at work because my work required that I needed a driver's license, and everything just was going downhill.
Michael's on the road again, thanks to a transplant procedure that gave him insulin-producing cells called islets.
Use a process to extract the islets out of the pancreas, purify them, and then they can be injected back into a patient.
Michael received three infusions of islets at Washington University in Saint Louis. The cells are injected into the portal vein, then travel to the liver where they start generating insulin.
I took the infusion line and could see the cells coming down the infusion line and it's like, Wow! Cool!
Then the islets would go off to various parts of the liver where they would be bathed and begin functioning.
And though the islets are working in Michael, he still has diabetes.
I don't use the word 'cured' diabetes. Michael is off of insulin. He's been off insulin for over four years, but he's not cured.
For Michael, the chance to live without an insulin pump is a gift for the present, and the future, because his nephew also has type 1 diabetes.
If this research leads to something bigger and better, then maybe it will help him.
And perhaps drive research toward a cure. For WebMD, I'm Damon Meharg.
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