Hi-tech pump gives diabetic ‘new lease of life’
According to the Mater Private Hospital in Dublin, Mary is the first person in Ireland to benefit from a new type of insulin pump — the MiniMed 640G — which works in combination with a sensor that automatically stops insulin delivery before glucose levels are predicted to drop dangerously low, therefore avoiding a “hypo” before it happens.
A “hypo” — hypoglycemia — can cause dizziness, trembling, collapse or even coma. Mary, whose Type 1 diabetes is caused by the body’s inability to produce insulin, had experienced several comas, she says.
“The last big one was when my 18-year-old daughter found me in my bedroom. She panicked when there was no response. My husband, who had gone cycling, tore home. It was about a week after that incident that the hospital offered me this new pump,” Mary says.
From Navan, Co Meath, Mary was first diagnosed with diabetes in 1978 after she returned from Rome on a surprise Christmas visit to her mother. “I was a 19-year-old living it up in Rome. I’d been feeling unwell, had lost weight and had a terrible thirst. When I flew home that Christmas there were no shops open on a Sunday to buy a drink so by the time I got to Navan I was in a terrible state. My mother made an appointment with the GP and shortly afterwards I was diagnosed with diabetes. Needless to say, I didn’t get back to Rome.”
Back in the day, diabetics like Mary had to contend with steel needles stored in a container of methylated spirits that “stank” whenever the container was opened to administer an injection. Over the years the needles improved and then Mary was fitted with her first insulin pump eight years ago. There is no comparison between the old pump and what she has now, she says. “The old pump didn’t recognise when blood sugar levels were going low. And I didn’t recognise it myself. They generally happened at night and thanks be to God, my husband usually woke up to alert me.” Now she has “a new lease of life”.
“It allows me the freedom to go about my daily routine without having to worry about my blood/sugar levels,” Mary says.
According to Diabetes Ireland, the prevalence of Type 1 diabetes is on the rise and accounts for approximately 14,000 to 16,000 of the diabetes population.
