Medical Alert Dog Transforms Girl's Life After Diabetes Diagnosis
By Stefany Shaheen
CHICAGO (CBS) — Eight years ago my world came crashing down when my then eight-year-old daughter, Elle (pronounced Ellie), the oldest of our four children, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.
I found it ironic when I later discovered that November was Diabetes Awareness Month – the same month Elle would learn what it means to live with type 1 diabetes. Surviving type 1 requires thousands of needles – from taking shots of insulin in order to eat to testing blood sugar levels by pricking fingers eight to ten times per day.
Every day. Every meal. Every snack. Every time Elle played outside or went swimming or to dance lessons. Elle's blood sugar levels could drop for no apparent reason in the middle of the night, on any given night. I would lay awake every night, filled with worry.
The stress of this chronic illness took its toll on my whole family but Elle, our vibrant little girl refused to be defined or limited by her disease. Together we searched for ways to make life more livable.
My little girl bravely chose to become one of the first pediatric subjects for a medical trial of an artificial pancreas—a machine that gave her a "vacation" from the constant testing and administering of insulin.
We committed to advocating and raising funds to support this and other research by becoming National Chair for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Children's Congress and JDRF's Government Relations Committee.
Elle made it her mission to help find a cure in the next ten years. Due to her advocacy efforts, she was the only child in the room when President Obama signed a stem-cell research bill into law.
Yet all of the advocacy and outreach in the world would not change the fact that Elle's condition dramatically compromised her quality of life.
This challenging new reality and the changing priorities that came with it caused me to leave a job that I loved. Sleepovers became a thing of the past. Dance class and theater camp became causes for concern—triggering regimented routines to counter the ups and downs that every activity created in Elle's blood sugar.
Elle felt the stress of it all, and recognized the time and attention her condition took away from her two younger sisters and brother. We both yearned for some relief.
Then a dog named Coach came into our lives a little over two years ago, and everything changed. A trained medic-alert dog, Coach is able to detect dangerous changes in Elle's blood sugar through his incredible sense of smell.
When he detects a low or high, he paws at Elle or circles her until she stops what she is doing and tests her blood sugar. Coach goes to school with Elle, and to dance class, and to theater camp. He is integrated seamlessly into every part of her life.
I was very skeptical that an animal could do what still evades science, medicine and technology, but I have regularly witnessed Coach's amazing abilities in action. One night, just a few weeks after he arrived, I was startled awake by the sound of a child's footsteps and could hear the click of Coach's paws on the stairs.
Coach woke Elle up because she had a low blood sugar and she treated all by herself with a cup of juice. I could hardly believe it. It was the first time Elle had ever self-treated a low blood sugar in the middle of the night in nearly five years.
A wave of revelation washed over me. Coach wasn't just keeping Elle safe to gives us some relief. He was empowering her with the independence she will need in order to become a healthy adult. I realized then that this animal was going to do far more to care for us than we could ever do to care for him.
For years I laid awake at night worried that my daughter would not be able to safely live an independent life or that somehow this diagnosis would prevent her from achieving her dreams. Thanks to the remarkable love between Elle and Coach and his amazing abilities, Elle's future is brighter than I ever imagined.
Stefany Shaheen is the author of "ELLE & COACH: Diabetes, the Fight for My Daughter's Life, and the Dog Who Changed Everything."