Before the discovery of insulin in 1921 by Frederick Banting, Charles Best, James Collip, and John Macleod, a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes was an immediate death sentence. At the time, the only available medical treatment was a severe starvation diet intended to minimize blood glucose levels, which drastically reduced daily calorie intake to delay diabetic ketoacidosis. As a result, young patients rapidly declined, experiencing extreme muscle wasting and emaciation that left them severely malnourished and close to death. The photographs depict a three-year-old child known in medical archives as “Patient J.L.,” who was treated by Dr. William McKim Marriott … Read more