Life changing treatment for brave diabetic child

Seven year-old Aaron Brown was diagnosed with the serious condition when he was just 20 months old. After years of maintaining the condition with insulin injections the Limavady lad became the first child in the Western Board area to avail of an insulin pump. The small device, which is the size of a small mobile phone, is worn continuously and pumps insulin through a small plastic tube or cannula inserted under the skin. Aaron's parents Amanda and Chris say the device has given their son back his childhood and improved his concentration at school. The family hope that more pumps will become available to children suffering from Diabetes.

"It's made such a difference to him, he would never be without it at all. Even the small things like going to the Zoo or on a day out. Before we would've planned things like that around Aaron's eating times but now we don't have to worry about that," Amanda said.

"Since Aaron was 20 months old he has never had a sleep on in the morning," adds dad Chris. "He had to be up every morning for 8am for breakfast."

"Breakfast was at 8am, lunch at 12, dinner at 4pm and supper at 7pm. That was the routine we were tied to but now Aaron is able to eat what he wants when he wants. It gives us the flexibility and for Aaron he can have a lye in and go to a birthday party without worry," said his Aaron's mum.

Aaron was just a toddler when he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes which up until recently could only be maintained by injections, sometimes up to five a day. The family say his diagnosis came out of the blue as there was no history of the condition in the family, including the couple's other children, Victoria aged 9 and Stephen, aged 6.

"We knew he wasn't well at the time," says Chris, "He was just 20 months and he had been crying from his cot looking water. I took him down to get a drink and he nearly jumped in the fridge to grab water. We knew then something wasn't right. When we took him to the doctor his blood sugar was reading at 45-50. The safe level is between 4 and 10. He was very lucky."

Aaron's mum says since he began using the pump his blood sugar levels have been the lowest recorded.

"His blood sugars should always be between four and ten but they never were. They were always up and down and we couldn't understand what was happening. But now the blood results are the lowest they have ever been, and we notice the difference in aaron too. He has better control and concentration at school because he is having the big jump in his blood sugars."

The pump is kept in a small pouch around his waist and Aaron doesn't even feel it on him at all. He is even able to play football with it on."

"I think all kids should get the option. As parents we would like to see this more readily available. Look what it has given Aaron. he has better control of his blood sugars and he us happy at not getting his injections anymore."

Chris adds: "It was hard work at the start, a lot of hard work. Every two hours we are checking him, day and night. But you do reap the benefits later."

Mum Amanda concluded: "And now he looks forward to going shopping. Before he hated it because he could never get what he wanted to. Now that's changed for the better."

Previously patients in the Western Trust area who needed an insulin pump had to attend the service in another Trust to commence therapy and would have continued their review appointments there. The Western Area Integrated Diabetes Service (WAIDS) recently secured funding to introduce insulin pump therapy to its first group of patients with Type 1 Diabetes in the Western Trust area. Now patients can be started on a pump at one of the three Western Trust hospital diabetes clinics in Altnagelvin, Erne and Tyrone County Hospitals.The patients are supported by specialist teams of doctors, nurses and dietitians who understand their diabetes. The insulin pump service across the Western Trust is led by Dr Neil Black along with adult and paediatric consultant diabetologist colleagues, specialist nurses and dietitians.

Dr Black said: "Well trained highly motivated and carefully selected patients using insulin pump therapy have a better quality of life, improved diabetes control reducing their risk of diabetes-related complications, and they are less likely to require hospital admission due to their diabetes.

"It is possible for many people to achieve good diabetes control with multiple daily insulin injections to control blood sugar levels. However a small number of patients can still experience debilitating problems in stabilising their blood sugar levels and the burden of repeated self-injection is also significant

He continued: "There is excellent evidence that insulin pump therapy often improves quality of life for people with Type 1 Diabetes, offering more day to day flexibility and reducing the amount of low blood sugars or hypoglycaemic episodes."