There is now a potential breakthrough for people with type one diabetes.
University of Miami doctors said they were able to complete a cell transplant that is helping a woman produce insulin for the first time since she was diagnosed.
The transplant could mean an end to the juggling act of blood sugar checks and insulin injections that diabetics deal with every day.
Wendy Peacock, 43, is now experiencing life in a whole new way after undergoing the surgery, becoming the first patient to have the new cellular transplant.
Suffering from Type 1 diabetes for 26 years, Peacock said her life was regimented as her day revolved around her treatment.
“My days were focused on monitoring my blood sugar with multiple finger pricks, multiple insulin injections of course and trying to coordinate what I ate, even when I ate,” Peacock said. “Even when I exercise. It gives me hope. It gives me so many others hope.”
Peacock lives in Texas, but traveled to south Florida to have the procedure done by doctors with the Diabetes Research Institute in August.
Doctors examining a new technique for insulin-producing cells and implanting those cells into the omentum, an apron-like lining covering the abdominal organs.
According to doctors, the objective of this first trial is to show the cells can function in this new transplant site, as opposed to the liver, where many of the cells do not survive.
As for the surgery, it’s minimally invasive, with doctors making only three small incisions in her abdomen.
Nearly a month later, they said she’s doing very well, producing her own insulin naturally for the first time since being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 17.