Theodore Ryder

Theodore Ryder (born September 14, 1916 in Keyport , New Jersey ; † March 8, 1993 in Hartford , Connecticut ), often also called Ted Ryder , was one of the first twelve diabetes patients worldwide at the age of five who were diagnosed with pure diabetes of the insulin were treated with appropriate preparations. When he died in 1993 at the age of 76, he was the first person in the world to have had diabetes for 70 years and probably the longest documented case of ongoing insulin treatment in medical history. He was also the last survivor of the first twelve insulin-treated diabetic patients.

Life

Theodore Ryder was born in New Jersey in 1916 . At the age of four he developed symptoms of diabetes mellitus , including a greatly increased urine output , constant strong thirst and pronounced weight loss. At this point in time, there was no therapy available to treat the diabetes, so the disease would have resulted in death within a short time. The only treatment option was chronic malnutrition, which extended the lives of affected patients by approximately one to two years.

Thank you letter to Banting

In the spring of 1922, the physicians Frederick Banting and Charles Best at the University of Toronto succeeded in preparing the pure insulin from extracts of pancreatic tissue . After this became known to Theodore Ryder's family, an uncle working as a doctor in New York City attempted, through a personal conversation with Banting, to get his nephew to be included in experiments to test the insulin. After initial hesitation, Banting gave in and began treating the boy on July 10, 1922, who at that time weighed only 12.5 kilograms at the age of five. Within a few months, Theodore Ryder recovered completely and for the staff treating him became a symbol of the dramatic successes brought about by insulin. In October of the same year he was able to return home with his mother. In a thank you letter to Banting, he wrote:

"Dear Dr. Banting, I wish you could come to see me. I am a fat boy now and I feel fine. I can climb a tree. Margaret would like to see you. Lots of love from Teddy Ryder "

"Dear Dr. Banting, I wish you could come and see me. I'm a fat boy now and I feel good. I can climb a tree. Margaret would like to see you. Kind regards from Teddy Ryder "

Theodore Ryder became a librarian in Hartford, Connecticut, and lived a life without significant diabetes-related complications. He remained on friendly terms with Banting until his death in 1941 in the form of regular correspondence. Banting visited Theodore Ryder twice in the years following his treatment. Ryder's letters to Banting are part of his estate and have been reproduced several times in medical-historical treatises on the medical history of diabetes ; the collection of Banting's letters to Ryder has been in the holdings of the Thomas Fisher Library at the University of Toronto since 1999. In one of these letters in December 1938, Banting wrote, among other things:

"I shall always follow your career with interest and you will forgive me if I add, a little pride, because I shall always remember the difficult times we had in the early days of insulin. The outstanding thing I remember was your strength and fortitude in observing your diet and the manly way in which you stood up to the punishment of hypodermic injections. I am sure that you will be a success in life if you maintain the same spirit in meeting the rebuffs of the world. "

“I will always follow your further life with interest and, you will forgive me, also with a little pride, because I will always remember the difficult times that we had in the first days with insulin. The standout thing I remembered was your strength and bravery in following your diet and the brave way you endured the stress of the injections. I am sure that you will have success in life if you face the rejections of life with the same mind. "

Theodore Ryder came to prominence from the 1980s, because from this point in time he was an exception with his illness duration and his state of health even among long-term surviving diabetes patients. The American Diabetes Society is selling a coloring book for preschool children called "Teddy Ryder Rides Again" , which aims to provide them with basic knowledge about the disease and its treatment.

literature

• Michael Bliss: Theodore Ryder: The Last Living Link to the Discovery of Insulin. In: Practical Diabetes International. 12 (4 )/1995. John Wiley & Sons, pp. 187-188, ISSN  1357-8170
• Katharine Martyn: Teddy Ryder's Scrapbook. In: The Halcyon. The Newsletter of the Friends of the Thomas Fisher Library. Issue 24, November 1999; online at Teddy Ryder's Scrapbook

Web links

• CBC Digital Archives: The long life of Ted Ryder, diabetic Video of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (English)