Sir Frederick Banting... I'll be honest, I hadn't heard the name till today.
But in the 1920s, this guy was a hero...especially for Diabetics.
Fredrick Banting was born on November 14, 1891 in Canada. He served as a doctor in World War One, and after the war was over, he became really interested in diabetes and the pancreas. (Weird things to be interested in...but maybe not.)
Edward Schafer was another scientist and he had discovered that diabetes was a result of a lack of a protein...one that he named insulin.
In 1921, the University of Toronto gave Banting 10 dogs to experiment with. You know, cause when you can't have a guinea pig, a dog will work too. 😁
Anyhow, he conducted several experiments on said dogs. On the first one, he removed the dog's pancreas. Result: Diabetic dog.
The second dog's pancreas was removed, ground up and made into an injection. Giving these injections kept the dog healthy.
In 1922, a boy named Leonard Thompson was the first to receive an insulin injection. He recovered rapidly.
I have seen the effect of Banting's discovery. DodgerDog got diagnosed with T1D about a year ago. He was SO pale and sick looking before going into the hospital. With some water and insulin, he looked much more normal.
So thank you to Fredrick Banting for your amazing discovery. You have saved many lives.
And happy World Diabetes Day! 😉
(Sorry the picture is so small...trying to figure out the whole image tag thing... #nottechsaavy)
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