Woman chronicles journey to a diabetes-free life
Woman chronicles journey to a diabetes-free life
A new pancreas and a kidney made Deb Butterfield of St. Louis needle-free and pain-free after 24 years of struggling with Type 1 diabetes and losing the battle against serious complications.
Diagnosed at the age of 10, she began to deteriorate dramatically at 29. She developed neuropathy, retinopathy, and nephropathy in rapid succession. A kidney-pancreas transplant failed after four months of pain and frustration.
A heart attack at the age of 34 came close to snapping Butterfield’s fragile thread of hope, but it was followed by a second transplant that succeeded and finally left her free of diabetes and reversed the complications that had threatened to kill her.
Now, five years later, Butterfield lives a near-normal life with only a hint of the neuropathy that nearly crippled her. She’s become a champion for diabetics through the organization she founded, Insulin Free World Foundation, dedicated to providing information on advances in clinical diabetes that can benefit those who suffer from the disease.
"I came back from the darkest of my days with diabetes to the freedoms, health, and sense of future that I had all but lost to diabetes’ insidious attack," Butterfield wrote in her book, Showdown With Diabetes (New York City: W.W. Norton and Co; 1999). The book contains an intimate chronicle of Butterfield’s victory over diabetes and detailed, yet simple, explanations of transplantation and current research in the field, which may be helpful to patients and health care professionals alike.
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