New Device for Diabetics

RICHMOND, VA ( Ivanhoe Newswire) -- Close to 26 million people in this country have diabetes including one in every 400 children.  For years, the only choice those with insulin-dependent diabetes had was to wear an insulin pump with tubes.  But, they can sometimes tangle up and embarrass the user or get in the way of enjoying activities. Now, the world’s first tubeless insulin pump is changing that.  .

Whether it’s practicing Tae-Kwon-Do or wrestling around with his younger brother, 9-year-old Parker Gregory doesn’t let anything slow him down.

“When I go to the pool and stuff I always like to go off the high dive,” Parker told Ivanhoe.

While Parker is full of life, he was diagnosed at age six with a deadly disease, type 1 diabetes. As a nurse, Parker’s dad knows the disease all too well.

“I see amputations. I see people losing their eyesight. Kidney failure, heart disease,” James Gregory, Parker's dad, said.

As a father, it was tough to explain.

“I said 'I’m sorry' and had to tell him all those needles and pricks and things that hurt would have to continue for the rest of his life,” James said.

“It’s not fun at all,” Parker said,

But Parker is a fighter and thanks to the world’s first tubeless insulin pump, Parker gets to act like any other kid his age.

“Oh I feel great just like a normal person. Except I have a pump on. It sticks to my body,” Parker said.

With a traditional pump, tubing carries life-saving insulin to the body. The Omnipod, which is waterproof, delivers insulin without tubes or shots for up to three days.

“You’re not pulling out syringes. You’re not freaking people out with you know medical supplies,” Dr. Deidre Mcsweeney - Tyson, a director of Pediatric Endocrinology, at Bon Secours Medical Group, told Ivanhoe.

And it’s all controlled wirelessly through a hand-held device giving kids, like Parker, the freedom to be themselves.

The symptoms of type 1 diabetes include weight loss, increased thirst and frequent urination. Incredibly, Parker’s family found out he had diabetes when ants began congregating in the bathroom. They were attracted to the high levels of sugar in parker’s urine and prompted his parents to test his glucose levels. MORE

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If this story or any other Ivanhoe story has impacted your life or prompted you or someone you know to seek or change treatments, please let us know by contacting Marsha Hitchcock at mhitchcock@ivanhoe.com