At twelve o’clock in the morning, there was a sudden alarm. Ed jumped out of bed and rushed into his son’s room. His son David suffered from type 1 diabetes, and the alarm just came from his blood sugar monitor. If blood sugar drops sharply, David will be in danger of death. So Ed set a blood sugar level, If his blood sugar is below that level, The alarm will go off. Ed said he was always on tenterhooks, Afraid that when he ran to his son’s room one day, His limbs were cold. He took David’s hand carefully. Thank goodness, It’s still warm. A big stone in my heart just fell. This is a lifelong battle. Type 1 diabetes is common in teenagers. Different from the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes, Patients with type 1 diabetes have a severe lack of insulin secretion, Insulin treatment is required for almost all one’s life. At the same time, For parents of children with type 1 diabetes, Taking care of them is an endless battle. Check his physical condition every five minutes. Nearly 300 times a day, Energy and confidence in overcoming the disease have been eroded little by little. David was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes when he was 11 months old. Now he is 16 years old, Ed has to guard him every night. What scares him most is that after his son goes to bed, his blood sugar may suddenly drop and there is no one around him. He was fine when he was forced to develop [bionic pancreas] at home, but what should he do when he went to college and lived in the dormitory? Ed himself is an associate professor of biomedical engineering at an American university. In order to better help his son and other patients with type 1 diabetes monitor blood sugar, He began to develop [bionic pancreas] with all his heart. This system will implant a monitor into a person’s stomach. Every few minutes, Just one blood sugar test, The results are sent to the phone, Then it can automatically calculate the amount of medicine needed. At the same time, it has two pumps for storing medicine. An insulin pump, A glucagon pump. The calculation results will guide the two pumps to inject corresponding doses of drugs into the human body. Control blood sugar 24 hours a day. Step up the research and development process. Ed and his team first tested the system on 52 teenagers and adults. It was found that the new device was better than the patient’s own control of blood sugar. He reported the results of the experiment at the annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association. He has also published academic papers. Ed’s system is mainly different from other similar products. Is that it controls both insulin and glucagon, This is more in line with the human body’s own situation. However, some experts pointed out that the problem with the two pumps is that the use process is more complicated and prone to errors. If the machine fails, hypoglycemia can kill people. Ed hopes to develop a stable system as soon as possible, because David will go to college in 2017. At that time, David will have to rely on himself. I hope he can put this bionic pancreas developed by his father to go to school. Study and live normally with your classmates. Life is full of hope. A 24-year-old diabetic has only used this system for 3 days. He said excitedly, [Finally, I can stop worrying about my blood sugar]. She was definitely diagnosed at the age of 11. For the first time in so many years, I ate a biscuit in the middle of the night. In the project plan proposed by Ed’s team to FDA, 480 patient will be tested, The youngest is only 13 years old, At least 100 of them will continue to use the bionic pancreas for the next year. Ed hopes the device can be approved by FDA before his son David enters the university dormitory. However, Since glucagon is mainly used for first aid rather than long-term use, The FDA believes that further research is needed, And observing the test results, Eventually, approval may not be given until early 2018. But Ed is still confident about the progress of the whole project. If [bionic pancreas] can be approved, patients with type 1 diabetes will no longer have to worry all day long and can better control their blood sugar. David is also very grateful to his father. He said: “I have always believed in my father. I have great confidence in him because he really, really cares.”
