COIMBATORE: Idhayangal Charitable Trust has given the latest insulin cartridges, pens, glucometer strips and a refrigerator (to store the cartridges) to a 12-year-old girl who suffers from type 1 diabetes and was recently admitted to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital in diabetic coma.
The child’s free insulin vials, given by the government, were losing potency because of not being refrigerated, because her family has no electricity connection.
Ramya, whose parents are daily wage labourers, had been diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a child. While she had been hospitalized several times earlier, the recent admission was with a life-threatening condition because her body began going into ketoacidosis which led to a diabetic coma.
The ketoacidosis was because her blood sugar levels had shot up above 600. “We suspect that it is because the insulin vials had lost potency because of not being refrigerated,” said Dr Krishnan Swaminathan, founder trustee of the trust.
Idhayangal has a project, called Kovai Thulir, mainly to help poor type 1 diabetes children. An Idhayangal team in CMCH noted the admission and decided to reach out to her.
On Sunday, the Idhayangal team visited her village, Muniappankovilpatti near Madukkarai. Since the child’s family lives in a thatched house and electricity is given only to cement houses, the team requested a shop nearby for space to install the refrigerator which will store the cartridges.
“The child in the last one week of using our cartridges has gained 1.1 kg and has smartly learnt to check her blood levels and administer the pen injection,” said Dr Swaminathan. The team also said there were at least 15 thatched roof houses in the village with no power.