A GARRISON mother is on a mission to raise awareness for Type 1 Diabetes and early symptoms after her son was saved by a trip to local pharmacist Siobhan McNulty.
Michelle Duffy took her son Cameron (14) to Melvin’s Pharmacy to get passport photographs ahead of his school trip with St Michael’s College to Manchester.
It was from there that life as they knew it would forever change for the Duffy family.
“I had concerns of my own after we went on a family walk around Crom
Castle, when taking pictures of the kids I noticed Cameron (who was then 12) looked extremely tired.
“He was always looking for food and was constantly hungry but I just put it down to hormones and being a teenage boy,” explained Michelle.
“One week later I went into Siobhan McNulty in our local chemist and as she was taking the passport photos she started to comment on how tall and skinny Cameron had suddenly become.
“She then asked him what he was doing to lose weight and Cameron said he was drinking lots of water, which prompted her next question to see if he was going to the toilet a lot.”
Over some casual chit chat and further questioning, they had worked out that Cameron was drinking between four and five litres of water a day.
In a quick turn of events, Siobhan checked Cameron’s blood sugar level to discover that it had sky rocketed to 25.9.
“I knew by Siobhan’s face that something wasn’t right and I took him to A&E.”
Staff at SWAH discovered that Cameron had DKA (diabetic ketoacidosis),
a condition caused by the body needing to break down fat as a source of energy. If left untreated it can lead to a diabetic coma that can be life threatening.
Nearly two years on, Michelle cannot thank the quick actions of Siobhan McNulty enough, insisting that the Garrison pharmacist ‘really did save his life even though she is very modest, I don’t even want to think of what the implications could have been hadn’t she picked up on those warning signs.
“Unfortunately children do die from misdiagnosed diabetes and there is
no doubt that Siobhan saved his life.”
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