Eileen Healey

Two weeks before her 1982 graduation, Eileen Healey was diagnosed with diabetes. For twenty years, she struggled with episodes of hypoglycemia unawareness. Then she learned about islet cell transplantation online at insulinfree.org. Eileen submitted applications to Miami and the Diabetes Institute for Immunology and Transplantation at the University of Minnesota.

Eileen recalls, “I received the phone call from Minnesota and was excited yet scared. I was actually more afraid of the testing that had to be done prior to the transplant than the transplant itself.” She traveled to the University of Minnesota twice but for various reasons didn’t receive the transplant. Eileen says, “The third time was the charm. I received a call on my mother’s birthday, October 25th. My mother and I got to Newark airport as fast as we could to get a plane to Minnesota. I had the transplant on October 26, 2002 at 3 A.M. I had to remain in Minnesota for three weeks and went home just before Thanksgiving.”

As she was being brought to the operating room for the transplant, Eileen remembers that she nearly backed out. According to Eileen, the transplant was important for everyone in her family--- her husband and her children, a 13-year-old daughter and an 8-year-old son. “They needed me,” she says. “I realized that my kids have a 50-50 chance of getting this disease and if I can help my children and all the other kids out there, then I needed to do it. “

Diabetes had affected her husband and children in many ways, Eileen explained. “My daughter was told at a young age that she had to make sure mommy woke up in the morning and if I wouldn’t wake up to dial her grandmother or 911. I can remember my daughter saying ‘don’t you think this is a big responsibility for someone my age?’ and all I could say to her was the truth: either do this or mommy could die.”

Eileen became insulin independent on January 10, 2003. She says, “I was afraid to put my insulin pump supplies away thinking that if I put them away, I’d need them again. I have since packed them up.”

Living insulin-independent has given Eileen and her family freedom they didn’t have before. “My children can now relax and be kids. I no longer have to check my blood sugar before driving the car. I can actually walk the parade route for my daughter on St. Patrick’s Day with her Irish dance class without having low blood sugar and getting dopey.” Eileen concludes, “It is honestly like a whole new life. It is like getting a second chance, which is a wonderful feeling.”