SAN ANTONIO -- People with type one diabetes are dependent on injected insulin. Now, some patients are being cured of their lifelong disease with a pancreas transplant.
On October 30, 2010, more than a thousand San Antonians will be stepping out to help in the fight against diabetes with a walk in Brackenridge Park.
One of the team leaders is a young woman who had type one diabetes, but has been cured with the help of an amazing transplant.
Tammy Perez of San Antonio has a new lease on life, thanks to Dr. Adam Bingaman and his team at the Texas Transplant Institute at Methodist Specialty and Transplant Hospital in San Antonio. After her brother gave her a kidney, Perez got a pancreas from a deceased donor.
“Of course I was afraid because it’s a big procedure,” Perez said, “but I was just like ‘that could do wonders afterward. What new life it could bring me.’”
In January 2010, she underwent a three-hour operation. Doctors attached her new pancreas to blood vessels and her intestines. It immediately began working, producing insulin.
“It can really change people’s lives dramatically,” transplant surgeon Bingaman explained. “If you look at blood sugars of people that have received pancreas transplants, they’re essentially indistinguishable from somebody that’s not diabetic at all. So it completely regulates the blood sugars.”
Pancreas transplants were considered experimental until about 1990. Still, donors need to be under 40 and that limits the numbers of organs available.
Perez is only 31 years old, but her new pancreas should last about a decade. Her quality of life has changed dramatically. “I never thought it would go away,” she said of her diabetes. “And it’s gone. I want people to know there is hope. Never give up.”
“It is very important for folks with type one diabetes to understand that a pancreas transplant is an option for them,” Bingaman remarked.
Last year, the walk to fight diabetes in San Antonio raised more than $200,000. It’s not too late to sign up.
