The diabetic reactions plaguing Bryon Best's adult life are gone. Following a costly and innovative transplant surgery in Edmonton two years ago, the 55-year-old teacher is working, driving and walking without fear
Kirsten Murphy
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Jan 10/01) - Bryon Best was the world's first islet cell transplant recipient. He considers himself "cured" of the disease and no longer relies on daily insulin injections.
Gone are the days when Best would crash to the floor unconscious -- an embarrassing symptom of his depleted blood sugar levels.
| Diabetes facts Diabetes is caused when sugar and starch are improperly absorbed from the bloodstream. It is characterized by thirst and frequent urination. Islet cell transplant: officially known as the Edmonton Protocol after the University of Alberta scientists who pioneered the study in 1999. The procedure: cells removed from the pancreas of an organ donor are transferred to the liver of a diabetic. Islet cells mimic the body's normal insulin production.
Timeline: Up until two years ago, the procedure was only successful in mice. At least 14 diabetics have since undergone the procedure with successful results.
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Now living between Yellowknife and Wrigley, Best teaches math and science to adult education students.
He credits God and University of Alberta scientist Dr. James Shapiro with saving his life. Shapiro is the first Canadian doctor to successfully transplant islet cells from donated pancreases into livers of diabetic patients. Best's liver was the first in the world to successfully undergo the procedure in March 1999.
Fourteen other Canadians have since joined the historic list. The Government of the Northwest Territories picked up Best's $200,000 surgical bill.
Headlines around the world screamed of the procedure's success. Dr. Shapiro received international acclaim overnight. The slim, bespectacled Best simply went back to a quiet life of books.
"The attention can be uncomfortable, but when such a dramatic change takes place and others can learn from it, then it's important to get the information out," Best says.
Eight months after the operation, Best was back at work -- three years after leaving Yellowknife Education School District No. 1.
He was lucky. Not only did his body accept the foreign cells, the procedure's side effects were minimal. He now calls himself a non-diabetic and (hopefully) will be spared further surgery.
"The best word to describe it is freedom," Best says of life without insulin injections or collapsing in public.
His only obligation to the disease are six month check-ups with Shapiro and daily blood sugar tests.
His health problems are gone, but not forgotten. Like in 1998, when the otherwise active divorcee with two children was riding home from the Salvation Army by bike. Like most reactions those days, the attack came without warning. For 30 minutes, the non-drinking, non-smoking man lay embedded in a snowbank. Finally, someone spotted him and called an ambulance. If they thought he was drunk, they didn't say.
"In that case not only was I hypoglycemic but hypothermic."
Best knows the outcome could have been fatal.
In the mid-1990s, a hike around Frame Lake went terribly wrong. Halfway into the walk, he became desperate for a "sugar fix". All he needed was a hit of juice or crackers. But in his trance-like state, he could only stare at people passing by.
Best stumbled home, as did his mood. Depression was a way of life as it is with many diabetics, he says. Unable to drive or work from 1996-99, staying in bed crossed his mind. Instead, he helped at the Salvation Army's soup kitchen and volunteered with the Tree of Peace. His mobility was rewarded $3,000 ambulance bills -- a reminder that even if his wanted to stay active, his body didn't.
"Just like you'd never get used to being hit by a semi-trailer, you never get used to the reactions," he says. "But I never gave up. Must be the stubborn Irish spirit in me."
His 1999 surgeries (one month apart) are now a happy but distant memory.
Delighted to have paid work again, future plans include bible school and a degree in divinity. After reflecting upon the 35 years of mind-numbing attacks he endured, Best says he never gave into his despair. "I feel like a terrible restriction was lifted. It's been a physical and psychological lift and I hope others can feel the same."
