Haman Higdon’s Diabetic Alert Dog

Two years ago, a fluke--and nearly fatal--malfunction of her pancreas

landed Kim in the intensive care unit of Indiana University Hospital for

weeks. The fabulous medical staff there saved her life. In one of the

three surgeries Kim underwent, they had to remove most of her pancreas,

leaving Kim with type 1 (insulin-dependent) diabetes.

As some

of you may know, diabetes is perhaps the most difficult chronic disease

to manage on a day-to-day basis. Kim has to check her blood sugar

multiple times a day, figure out the appropriate insulin doses, and

inject herself to keep her blood sugar levels within the normal range.

The long-term complications that can result from type 1 diabetes are

serious, but the short term danger of low blood sugar levels is always

present. Low blood sugar can lead to dizziness, disorientation,

unconsciousness, coma, and even death.

It can be very hard for

someone with diabetes to detect when their blood sugar is too low. But

about 15 years ago, someone figured out that dogs (whose sense of smell

is thousands of times more sensitive than ours) could be trained to

detect hypoglycemia.

This campaign is to raise $5000 for Kim

to buy and train a diabetic alert dog that will be able to detect low

blood sugar levels and warn Kim before they've gone low enough to cause

serious harm. (Buying a fully trained diabetic alert dog would cost

upwards of $10,000 but Kim is hoping to buy a puppy and take it to the

training classes herself.)