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Twelve-year-old Leonard Thompson was dying. Skeletal, barely conscious, he'd bee
1922 Event

January 11

First Insulin Used on Human: Diabetes Treatment Born

Twelve-year-old Leonard Thompson was dying. Skeletal, barely conscious, he'd been in a Toronto hospital ward for months—another victim of what doctors called a "death sentence" disease. But Canadian researchers Frederick Banting and Charles Best had other plans. They'd extracted insulin from dog pancreases and were ready to try something radical. The first injection didn't work. But a refined dose two weeks later? Thompson stabilized. Suddenly, type 1 diabetes wasn't an automatic death sentence. And a medical miracle was born.

January 11, 1922

104 years ago

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