Biomedical: For diabetics: An electronic pancreas: A bionic device implanted below the human diaphragm will deliver insulin into the peritoneum and be inductively programmable

My wife and I returned to Albuquerque from San Francisco on a Saturday afternoon at the conclusion of WESCON. We knew that our youngest daughter was ill. Her illness has been diagnosed as a simple viral infection and she had been left in the care of her grandmother. When we saw her, we were shocked. She had lost about 15 pounds, was hyperventilating, the muscles in her face were in convulsion, and she was unable to keep down any food or liquids. We immediately called our physician, who reconfirmed his initial diagnosis and told us not to be alarmed. At about 5:00 a.m. on Sunday, we rushed her to the emergency ward of the local hospital. By this time, she was completely unintelligible. Two hours later, her condition was diagnosed as diabetes with an extremely high blood-sugar level. Immediate treatment with insulin and intravenous fluid injections was begun. It took another 48 hours before our daughter's blood-glucose level began to approach normal and she regained consciousness.