dLife membership gives you exclusive access! Get free recipes, newsletters, savings, and so much more!
Membership is FREE!

Leonard Thompson Biography

Claim to Fame: First person to receive insulin injection at the age of 14
DOB: 1908
Date of Death: 1935
Diabetes Type: 1

Thompson was the first patient to receive injections of pancreatic extract on January 11, 1922. He was 14. The young Toronto resident had been diabetic since 1919. He weighed only 65 pounds and was about to slip into a coma and die. At first he received Dr, F. Banting’s and Dr. Charles Best’s extract. Two weeks later he used the purified extract of Dr. J.B. Collip and Thompson's symptoms began to disappear; his blood sugar returned to normal and he was brighter and stronger. Thompson lived another 13 years with the insulin. He died at the age of 27 due to diabetes complications.