Leonard Thompson (diabetic)

For other people named Leonard Thompson, see Leonard Thompson (disambiguation).

Leonard Thompson c. 1930

Leonard Thompson (17 July 1908 – 20 April 1935) was the first person to have received an injection of insulin as a treatment for type 1 diabetes.

Biography

Leonard Thompson was born on Pickering Street near the beaches of Toronto on 17 July 1908, to parents Harold and Florence Thompson. He was diagnosed with diabetes mellitus, and was first treated at the Hospital for Sick Children before being transferred to the care of physicians Andrew Almon Fletcher, Duncan Archibald Graham, and Walter Ruggles Campbell. Thompson received his first injection in Toronto, Ontario, on January 11th, 1922, at 13 years of age. Thompson's first dose had an apparent impurity which caused an allergic reaction. A refined process was quickly developed to improve the cow pancreas from which the insulin was derived. His second dosage was successfully injected 12 days later on January 23.

Thompson showed signs of improved health and went on to live 13 more years taking doses of insulin, before dying of pneumonia at age 26.

Until insulin was made clinically available, a diagnosis of diabetes was a death sentence, more or less quickly (usually within months, and frequently within weeks or days).

See also

• Gladys Boyd, paediatrician, pioneer in the treatment of juvenile diabetes.
• Charles Best, co-discoverer of insulin.
• Elizabeth Hughes Gossett, a notable early recipient of insulin.
• Frederick Banting, co-discoverer of insulin.
• Islets of Langerhans
• Pancreas
• James D. Havens, first American to receive insulin from Toronto.

References

• Bliss, Michael (2007). The Discovery of Insulin. ISBN 9780226058993.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0967772020974355?journalCode=jmba

External links

• Leonard Thompson at Find a Grave