Students educate peers on diabetes and plight of their sister

On the occasion of Diabetes Awareness Month, two English Montreal School Board students are educating their peers about the disease as it relates to their little sister.

Raphaella is a student at Royal West Academy in Montreal West. Her sister Emmanuelle attends Merton Elementary School in Côte Saint-Luc. Over the next few weeks, they will be talking about the impact of diabetes on their family and the plight of their younger sister.

Dr. Preetha Krishnamoorthy, M.D.C.M,  a Pediatric Endocrinologist at the Montreal Children’s Hospital,   spoke to Raphaella’s Secondary I Science class on November  16 at Royal West. Teacher Andrea Dillon agreed that this was a wonderful example of authentic learning.

The preschooler was diagnosed in December 2016 with Type 1 diabetes at the age of 2. Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes is an autoimmune chronic disease. The team of dedicated health care professionals offered standardized training for her medical treatment. “At first, we managed daily and nightly insulin injections and capillary blood tests before meals,” said mom Michaella. “Diabetes management requires timely decision making and touches every aspect of a person’s lifestyle. The young sister has labile diabetes and Impaired Hypoglycaemia Awareness also known as “symptom unaware.” She displays and feels no symptoms such as fatigue, hunger, thirst, sweat, shakes and dizziness; such symptoms can prompt medical intervention to prevent and treat hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia. The two states, untreated can lead to seizures, unconsciousness and death.  

“We received advice from parents in the USA and Israel on innovative treatment care for children with type 1 diabetes.” Michaella explained. “We were testing her blood sugar over 20 times a day and night until we acquired Dexcom, a continuous glucose’s monitor (CGM) a couple of months into a diagnosis.  Thanks to Dexcom’s alarms and blood glucose readings every five minutes, we can prevent and treat hypoglycaemias. The early warning alarms that are set when the blood glucose crosses thresholds reduce the time spent at highs and lows.”

Since diagnosis, the preschooler has required no ambulatory or admission hospital care, as well as no glucagon injection; she was administered on two separate occasion overdoses of insulin as well as caught frequent colds, flus and ear infections which were all treated with no emergency care, thanks to Dexcom.  Compared to the traditional treatments, the use of the innovative device of Dexcom is critical and life-saving for her. It proves itself on a daily and nightly basis. 

The cost of Dexcom is completely out of pocket as RAMQ and private insurance do not cover the expense. The cost of Dexcom is around 5,200$ annually, however, according to Canadian Institute for Health Information, the standard hospital stay in Quebec it is $ 5,700.  The Endocrine Society of Canada the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and Health Quality Ontario support publicly funding of CGM for patients living with type 1 diabetes. 

“Quebec children with Type 1 diabetes deserve to have treatment care that offers them quality of life and decreases diabetes-related complications,” said Michaella. “Only public awareness and education will lead to change!   We have so much work ahead of us in Quebec as we are years behind the USA”

Raphaella will be leading a charity project for her upcoming birthday. Finger puppets will be donated to the Children's Hospital diabetic clinic.

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