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Tag: Healthcare

The discovery of insulin

Heritage Minute: The Discovery of Insulin

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes was a death sentence. Starvation diets were employed to delay the life-threatening symptoms of diabetes, but patient death was inevitable.

Beginning on May 17, 1921, Frederick Banting and Charles Best, under the direction of J. J. R. Macleod, isolated what would later be known as insulin in a lab at the University of Toronto. Their extract was further purified and made safe for human injection by James Collip.

Thirteen-year-old Leonard Thompson was selected to receive their first human trial, the results of which would go on to save the lives of millions around the world.

More information about the Discovery of Insulin at the The Canadian Encyclopedia »

Dr. Jillian Horton » I’m tired of kindness gaslighting

Dr. Jillian Horton

Dr. Jillian Horton

Dr. Jillian Horton, Globe and Mail »

I had some pretty toxic feelings on Sept. 1. Hundreds of anti-vaxxers were gathered in all their lack of glory on the street outside the hospital where I work, repeating this stunt on Sept. 13 at hospitals across Canada. My co-workers and I were incredulous. Their presence outside our facilities was too callous to be real.

How arrogant, how tone deaf would it have been of me if I’d urged my exhausted colleagues to meet them with “kindness?” And who believes that people intent on screaming outside a children’s hospital would receive directions from Jesus himself if he happened to be in the neighbourhood?

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