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Breakthrough: Banting, Best, And The Race To Save Millions Of Diabetics
It is 1919, and Elizabeth Hughes, the 11-year-old daughter of America's most distinguished jurist and politician, Charles Evans Hughes, has been diagnosed with juvenile diabetes. It is essentially a death sentence. The only accepted form of treatment—starvation—whittles her down to 45 pounds of skin and bones. Miles away, Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best manage to identify and purify insulin from animal pancreases—a miracle soon marred by scientific jealousy, intense business competition, and fist fights. In a race against time and a ravaging disease, Elizabeth becomes one of the first diabetics to receive insulin injections—all while its discoverers and a little-known pharmaceutical company struggle to make it available to the rest of the world. Relive the heartwarming true story of the discovery of insulin as it has never before been told, written with authentic detail and suspense, and featuring walk-ons by William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, and Eli Lilly, among many others.
320 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 2, 2010
2 people are currently reading
18 people want to read
About the author
Thea Cooper
4 books7 followersCo-author of BREAKTHROUGH:
Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle
Thea Cooper is a writer, editor, and teacher. She wrote her first poem in second grade and has been writing ever since.
Throughout her professional career Thea has applied her love of language and narrative structure to a range of environments, from higher education to corporate communications, creating effective, audience-centric communications and strategies in both the profit and nonprofit sectors. Her specialty is synthesizing complex or esoteric content and identifying an organic narrative structure within bodies of information. She has worked in print, spoken word presentation, and online.
Thea has a B.A. in English from Bard College and an M.F.A. in playwriting from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa. Her plays have been produced in theaters and festivals across the country.
She lives in Seattle.
Elizabeth Hughes, the Discovery of Insulin, and the Making of a Medical Miracle
Thea Cooper is a writer, editor, and teacher. She wrote her first poem in second grade and has been writing ever since.
Throughout her professional career Thea has applied her love of language and narrative structure to a range of environments, from higher education to corporate communications, creating effective, audience-centric communications and strategies in both the profit and nonprofit sectors. Her specialty is synthesizing complex or esoteric content and identifying an organic narrative structure within bodies of information. She has worked in print, spoken word presentation, and online.
Thea has a B.A. in English from Bard College and an M.F.A. in playwriting from the Iowa Playwrights Workshop at the University of Iowa. Her plays have been produced in theaters and festivals across the country.
She lives in Seattle.
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March 27, 2021
Kindle
Fascinating story of the discovery of insulin for diabetic treatment.
Fascinating story of the discovery of insulin for diabetic treatment.
Displaying 1 of 1 review