Response from: Razique Anwer    (05/18/09 12:29am)

Collip, a professor at the University of Alberta, had experience in the chemistry of hormones. Prior to January 1922, he had prepared an insulin pure enough to be used on human patients. The first patient to receive insulin was 14-year-old Leonard Thompson. Thompson was admitted to Toronto General Hospital with a high blood glucose level; he also was urinating between three and five liters of fluid per day. Despite his rigid diet of only 450 calories (the only known treatment at this time was a diet low in carbohydrates), Thompson continued to excrete (get rid of through bodily waste) large amounts of glucose. On January 11, 1922, he was given insulin. Within a fairly short time, his blood sugar level came down and he stopped urinating large amounts of liquid.