PEOPLE SPOTLIGHT

A Mother's Plea

By Sara Weiss

Real Stories About Real People

On January 13, 2003, my seemingly healthy nine-year old son, Jordan, climbed the gym rope to the ceiling two times in a row! On Tuesday I took him to his piano lesson. On Wednesday evening we went to a school concert together. Thursday morning, Jordan threw up and stayed home from school. The Norwalk virus was ravaging New England and almost one-third of his class was home sick sometime that week. By Saturday, Jordan was sleeping most of the day and seemed lethargic. The triage nurse on the phone was reassuring and said that he seemed to be suffering from the virus going around and to call in the morning if he didn't start to feel better. Sometime in the early hours of January 19th, Jordan passed away in his sleep from complications pertaining to type 1 diabetes.

How could he have so suddenly slipped away without our realizing that he had diabetes? My husband and I quickly learned about the warning signs of type 1 and in hindsight Jordan displayed some of these symptoms in the weeks before – bedwetting and some weight loss. We never saw insatiable thirst (the only symptom I had known about) because he always had access to water bottles at home. Two of his friends were bedwetting just before Jordan started. Both went to their pediatricians and neither doctor mentioned the word diabetes!

Knowledge of the warning signs is our greatest weapon against this insidious disease. Sometimes the symptoms may be obvious and sometimes they are not. In Jordan's case, his symptoms were limited, subtle, and attributed to other illness. Symptoms which might appear to be unrelated, when viewed in the context of the list of warning signs, may suggest intervention.

We are dedicated to making a difference in the lives of other children and their families by educating communities (in part with ADA collaborations) about the warning signs of diabetes – all in Jordan's precious memory. Let's take the "Die" out of Diabetes!