Jake MacKinnon received a pancreas 9 years ago from a donor in Livingston, Calif. The MacKinnon family and the family of the donor have a tradition of collecting bikes for needy kids at Christmas time in both communities. (JOHN BURGESS/ PD)
Jake MacKinnon was 5 when he was diagnosed with diabetes. For more than a decade, he and his family dealt with increasingly dire prospects surrounding his disease.
His blood sugar fluctuated wildly, dipping as low as 40 and skyrocketing to 800, even when he was hospitalized and being monitored. (A range between 70 and 100 is considered normal.) That persistent type of uncontrolled blood sugar is called “brittle diabetes,” which can be challenging to treat.
MacKinnon also had hypoglycemic unawareness, meaning he couldn't detect the onset of a dangerous swing in glucose level. For a time he used an insulin pump. Nothing stabilized his diabetes.
“We struggled. It was never regulated,” said his mother, Janice MacKinnon, from the family home outside Petaluma. “We just tried everything.”
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To register as a donor in California:
www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org | www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org
Outside California:
www.organdonor.gov | www.donatelife.
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