photo by Mike Sands/IRISKristin (Krissy) Dietrich visits Timothy Kern, director of the Center for Diabetes Research, in the laboratory where he is investigating how to prevent diabetic retinopathy, a complication of diabetes that can lead to blindness. |
If you learned that one of your children had diabetes, you'd do all you could do to help him or her. During the past 13 years, Richard and Nancy Dietrich of Cleveland Heights have seen that their daughter receives the care she needs. Now, they are using their resources for research that may benefit her and other people with diabetes.
The Dietriches have established a $500,000 grant in the name of their daughter, Kristin, with the Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland (DAGC). In turn, DAGC has awarded the funds to the Diabetes Research Center at CWRU's School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland.
The funds are earmarked for the laboratory of Timothy Kern, director of the center and a CWRU professor of medicine, who will do research seeking to prevent a serious complication of diabetes, blindness.
Considerable money is spent in our society treating diabetes, Nancy Dietrich said, but much less is spent researching cures and complications. "It costs so much less to cure a disease than to treat a disease," she said. (According to Diabetes Care magazine, the federal government spends about $40 billion on treating diabetes; federal research into the disease is about $500 million.)
Nancy, who is a Cleveland Heights councilwoman, said the gift came from their deep devotion to their daughter. "We targeted what we feared," she said. "Here she is, a wonderful woman full of vitality, and the thought of her having a life that might be limited because she may become blind or suffer from kidney disease or heart disease seemed so tragic, such a waste. The thought of her becoming disabled is what we wanted to prevent."
Kristin, or Krissy as her family and friends call her, is a vibrant 26-year-old graduate student working toward a master's degree at CWRU's Mandel Center for Nonprofit Organizations. She hopes one day to run a community center that provides educational and enrichment opportunities to children and their families. She also is interning at Project ACT (Action for Children and Youth in Transition), an enrichment program which the Cleveland Public Schools operates.
Krissy has lived with diabetes for more than half of her life, but it has not hindered her active lifestyle. In fact, she has run marathons and played field hockey and rugby.
"I was diagnosed with diabetes when I was 13, in the 7th grade," Krissy said. "Living with diabetes could be handled in one of two ways: you control it, or it controls you. I chose the former. It hasn't stopped me from doing any of the things I wanted to do with my life, whether that was traveling around the world or running a marathon. I am sure that I am a different person today than I would have been if I wasn't diabetic, but it is not even something that I can separate out. It is simply part of me."
As a person with diabetes, Krissy takes precautions necessary to keep the disease in check: injections of insulin before each meal and before bed daily (soon she will switch to a pump); glucose testing five times daily; some form of sugar, such as cookies or juice boxes, in her pocket just in case she needs it; being aware of low blood sugar when exercising; and counting carbohydrate grams in foods and adjusting her insulin intake accordingly.
For those in whom diabetes recently has been diagnosed, especially children, she advised, "Never be afraid to tell those around you about your disease. Keeping it a secret makes taking care of yourself much more difficult. We don't think any less of people who wear glasses, so why should having diabetes be any different?"
Krissy said she is honored that her parents made the donation and hopes that the research will lead to "wonderful new treatments, making life with diabetes easier and healthier for all those affected by the disease."
Kern, the CWRU professor leading the research, knows the fear that strikes when a diagnosis of diabetes is made. He also has diabetes and was told at a young age that he could go blind. Through a combination of diligence and good genes, however, he has not developed these complications and he has devoted a career in science to finding answers about the disease.
The Dietrich grant will help him unravel the steps in the growth of new blood vessels in the eye that occur with advanced diabetic retinopathy. The new vessels grow abnormally and wildly, leaking blood and forming a scar in front of the retina, causing blindness. "A major goal of my research is to provide an improved means to prevent this important cause of visual loss," said Kern. "We postulate that the administration of Vitamin E, a potent inhibitor of an enzyme called protein kinase C, will prevent the development of this growth."
Krissy's parents approached DAGC about three years ago to discuss how a donation could be used to prevent complications. Her father Richard, who is an entrepreneur and described as very goal-oriented, wanted to be involved in establishing the criteria for the gift and reviewing progress reports.
Harriet L. Fader, executive director of DAGC, said, "We applaud the Dietrich Family for its active participation, generosity, and vision. We foresee that there will be other such donors wishing to be more directly involved in the awarding process."
She added, "As a local, independent organization, DAGC has a strong commitment and the capacity to assist donors in guiding and directing their charitable donations. The grant was specifically awarded to a Cleveland-based research project, in keeping with our goal to use every donation to DAGC right here in Cleveland. It is a win-win situation for donors, for the local diabetes research effort, and for the overall quality of diabetes knowledge and care in our community."
Nathan Berger, dean of CWRU's School of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs, said, "I am grateful to the Dietrich Family for its support and the Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland for its continuing support of research at the medical school. The School of Medicine and its researchers are committed to finding tomorrow's cures that will eradicate diseases that affect people like Krissy and the millions of others with diabetes."
More than 16 million Americans have diabetes. It is a leading cause of death by disease. It can lead to heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, amputation and blindness.
DAGC's goal is to improve the quality of life for people with diabetes and their families by providing education and information and supporting research in the five-county Greater Cleveland area. For more information, call the Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland at 591-0800 or visit its Web site at http://www.dagc.org.
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