Club member Dr Christopher Rutty lends his expertise to this new article “Elizabeth Hughes, a menina que sobreviveu à ‘terapia da fome’ — e foi salva pela insulina” (“Elizabeth Hughes, the girl who survived ‘starvation therapy’ — and was saved by insulin”) in BBC News Brasil about Elizabeth Hughes and early diabetes management. As a young girl, Hughes was one of the first people with diabetes to receive insulin from Dr Frederick Banting. (This article is in Portuguese but if you wish to read it in English, you might use Google Translate.)
Chris Rutty explains that Hughes “became a researcher of the very disease she had,” and that in addition to being the daughter of US Secretary of State, Charles Evans Hughes, and to being at the right place at the right time, “she was very brilliant, intelligent, and committed.” Chris also explains that she was ground-breaking, as “one of the first people with diabetes to inject herself with insulin — something that is now routinely done by millions of patients with the disease around the world.”
Chris also relates the fact that the late historian Michael Bliss, also a club member, met Hughes when he was researching his book The Discovery of Insulin (1982). She was a very private individual and initially hesitant to speak about her experience, but came to understand the importance of her story. She allowed all the the materials to be released after her death.
