Never missed an insulin shot in 82years - Wow

A Friend sent me the below transcript of a show on Northwest Public Radio. This introduced me to Gladis Dull, who turns 90yrs this February. She has been living with type 1 Diabetes for 82years.

Stories like hers give me hope so I thought I would share it.


Gladis Dull of Walla Walla, Washington has taken insulin shots for most of her life.When insulin was first discovered over 80 years ago, everyone thought it was a cure for diabetes. Turns out the disease was more complicated. Gladis Dull of Walla Walla, Washington was one of the first people to get an insulin shot. Reporter Chana Joffe-Walt found she's a living history of diabetes treatment.First things first, you need to meet Gladis Dull.





Gladis: I have taken insulin for 82 years. Never missed a shot.


She's short, bony woman with a wrinkly smile. She starts almost every thought with: -
Well...Dull has type 1 Diabetes. That means she can't produce her own insulin.So she takes at least two shots of insulin a day. With the help of her son Norm Dull she's been keeping count.


Gladis: How many shots?


Norm: We figured you've taken insulin for 82 years so roughly you've had 59,860


Gladis: Yeah and I'm not in too bad shape for all those years.


Before all those shots, as a child Dull got very sick. She wasn't producing any insulin. People need insulin to convert glucose from food into energy. When she ate, sugar stayed in her bloodstream and damaged her organs.


Gladis: Well, when I was just 7 seven years I vomited, had to go to the bathroom all the time. And, uh, we didn't know anybody in the community where I lived there was nobody there with diabetes. They got me on insulin and I got along just fine. That was in 1924.


Dr. Hirsch: Let me put this into perspective for you.


This is Doctor Irl Hirsch. He's director of the Diabetes Care Center in Seattle.

Dr. Hirsch: Insulin did not really become widely available until 1923, 1924. At first for the first few years it was only really available in the larger urban areas.Canadian researchers discovered how to mass produce insulin in 1923. That means if Gladis Dull had gotten sick one year earlier, just one year, she probably would have died. Without insulin, glucose would have built up in her body and damaged her eyes, kidney and heart.

Dr. Hirsch specializes in the history and current clinical treatment Type 1 Diabetes at the University of Washington. He says, right before insulin some people with diabetes tried to save their lives by starving themselves. They were hoping to survive long enough for a cure.


Dr. Hirsch: Yeah it was very sad I mean the diagnosis of diabetes was really a death sentence. In a literal sense.


Dr. Hirsch is fascinated by Dull. Not because of her timely illness. But because she's still alive. The oldest patient Dr. Hirsch has ever seen just died at age 81.He says the fact that Dull has survived despite the crude tools we had to regulate blood sugar is remarkable. Most people who lived through those times had tons of complications. But this is what Gladis Dull was doing


Gladis: I've snowmobiled, bicycled, rode horseback, motorcycled, I've done about everything.


That makes Dr. Hirsch ask this question


Dr Hirsch: Why is it that there are some lucky chosen people that no matter how poor our tools were didn't get into trouble? Now, my guess is that these people have some sort of genetic protections, protecting them. And because of that, what I'd like to do is get some of her blood to see if indeed that's the case.


Dr. Hirsch thinks Gladis Dull could be key in his efforts to curb the diabetes epidemic. He's planning a special trip out to Walla Walla to get her blood. He gets excited just talking about it. What's Dull excited about?


Gladis: Well, looking forward to my 90th birthday. If I can make it that long I think it'd be a pretty good deal.Gladis Dull turns 90 this month. On her birthday, her insulin shot tally will top 60 thousand.
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