Katherine Kizilos
Katherine Kizilos is a staff writer at Cosmos.
Xavier Hames, a four-year-old boy from Perth with type one diabetes, has become the first person in the world to receive an artificial pancreas to help manage the disease.
He has received a new insulin pump system, which was developed through clinical trials conducted around Australia. The pump has the capacity to predict low glucose levels and can prevent hypoglyceaemia attacks, which can occur at night when a patient is asleep, sometimes with fatal consequences.
The operation was performed at Perth’s Princess Margaret Hospital. “This device can predict hypoglycaemia before it happens and stop insulin delivery before a predicted event,” said the hospital’s Professor Tim Jones.
This week, NSW resident Jane Reid was due to become the first adult and second person in the world to receive the pump.
