FDA Approves First Artificial Pancreas For Patients With Diabetes
WARREN (WWJ) - It's big news for millions of Americans with Type 1 diabetes.
The FDA has approved the first artificial pancreas for those patients who can't make their own insulin.
"It gives me a lot of hope," said Macomb resident Rosann Palazzolo, whose daughter Bianca was just eight years old when she was diagnosed with Type 1, four years ago.
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which a person's pancreas loses the ability to produce insulin — a hormone essential to digestion. According to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), more than 15,000 children and 15,000 adults in the U.S. receive a Type 1 diagnosis each year.
Although the new device isn't yet approved for use in kids under 16, Palazzolo says advances like this one mean a cure for the disease is possible.
"In the back of her mind she's gonna know that, in time, better things will happen and it'll be for her," Palazzolo told WWJ Health Reporter Sean Lee.
Rosann, Bianca and her team, "Bianca's Walking Wishes" will be raising awareness for juvenile diabetes, and money to fight the disease, this Sunday, Sept. 29, at the Annual Walk to Cure Diabetes at the GM Tech Center in Warren.
Get more information about the event at this link.
Get more information about the new artificial pancreas, HERE.
