The Story of Leonard Thompson, the First Patient Treated with Insulin
On January 11, 1922, the first successful attempt to treat diabetes patients using insulin was recorded. The drug was administered to a 14-year-old Canadian boy named Leonard Thompson, who was suffering from a late stage of the disease and was classified as "certainly fatal" within days, prompting his parents to agree to the treatment experiment.
Before the discovery of insulin, the average life expectancy of patients with type 1 diabetes did not exceed two years. Today, we celebrate the centenary of this treatment that has saved millions of lives.
After receiving insulin, Leonard Thompson showed a significant improvement in his health and was able to live for a long time afterwards. He is considered a symbol of the beginning of insulin therapy for diabetes.
Source
This is a newspaper image covering the event at that time.
and the lower images show Leonard Thompson, the sick boy who was saved that day, at different stages of his life after his recovery. One image shows Thompson with his mother during one of the hardest moments of his illness.
Source
Source
Leonard Thompson became a specialist in endocrine glands and died at the age of 27 due to pneumonia.