Islet Transplants: Health Story

Aired on Lifetime Television for Women
Sunday, January 29 and March 12
Show 304

Gloria Bertossi is a diabetes survivor with type 1 diabetes. "I would become incoherent when my blood sugar would drop," she says. In America alone, 18 million people have diabetes types 1 and 2. But hope comes in the form of an incredible new cure - transplanting pancreas cells. The pancreas produces insulin. Diabetes destroys cells in the pancreas. According to Dr. Dixon Kaufman, Director of Islet Transplants at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, "If patients receive enough cells - two to three transplants are needed - almost 100 percent will become independent. Essentially they will be cured." "It's been a longtime goal to find a therapy for all patients with diabetes," says Dr. William Lowe, an endocrinologist at Northwestern Memorial. "I'm grateful for donors," says Gloria who received an islet transplant.