April 9

The Fight to Survive

By Caroline Cox

Several years ago, I heard Caroline speak at Brown about one of her other books, but was more drawn to this title.  Today, thanks to insulin, diabetics can lead normal lives but, 100 years ago, the disease was considered a death sentence.

The discovery of insulin is juxtaposed with the story of a young girl with diabetes growing up in the early 20th century.  As the daughter of Secretary of State Charles Evans Hughes, Elizabeth has financial resources at her disposal but it is her inner self-discipline that is really key to maintaining the strict diet that kept her alive in the years of testing and development of a new drug.  Her parents hired a nurse to monitor Elizabeth's health.  Submitting to an 800-calorie-a-day diet known as "starvation therapy", there were so few foods she could eat.  The author writes of celery being boiled not once, not twice, but three times to rid it of as much sugar as possible.  Elizabeth's nurse takes her on a trip to Bermuda to expose her to a warmer climate, and Elizabeth writes of the ecstasy of eating a strawberry while there.  Although she rigidly follows her diet, the diet is not sufficient to sustain life, and she is racing against time as researchers work to develop a drug that will allow her body to process sugars.  In 1922 Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and John Macleod succeed in developing insulin (for which they would be awarded the Nobel prize in 1923), and by this time Elizabeth's weight is down to about 45 lbs. She is one of the early recipients of insulin, learns how to inject herself with the drug, and goes on to a full and normal life as a wife and mother.