Leonard Thompson Receives First Insulin Injection 1922

# The Birth of Insulin: January 11, 1922

On January 11, 1922, a medical miracle unfolded in a Toronto hospital room that would transform diabetes from a death sentence into a manageable condition. On this day, 14-year-old Leonard Thompson became the first person to receive an injection of insulin to treat diabetes—though the first attempt was, shall we say, less than perfect!

Leonard was dying. Diagnosed with diabetes at age 11, he had wasted away to just 65 pounds, kept barely alive on a starvation diet of about 450 calories per day (the only treatment available at the time). His parents, desperate and knowing their son had mere weeks to live, agreed to let him become the first human test subject for a radical new treatment extracted from animal pancreases.

The injection that day was administered by Dr. Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best, who had spent months working in a sweltering laboratory, removing pancreases from dogs and attempting to isolate the mysterious substance that regulated blood sugar. The extract they injected into Leonard's buttock on January 11th was, frankly, pretty crude—impure and contaminated.

The result? Leonard's blood sugar dropped only slightly, and he developed an abscess at the injection site. Not exactly the dramatic success story you'd expect! The discouraged team stopped the treatment.

But here's where the story gets exciting: biochemist James Collip had been working frantically to purify the extract. Twelve days later, on January 23rd, they tried again with Leonard using Collip's refined insulin. This time, the results were nothing short of miraculous. Leonard's blood sugar levels plummeted to near-normal ranges, his symptoms improved dramatically, and he went on to live another 13 years (ultimately dying of pneumonia, not diabetes).

The news spread like wildfire through the medical community. Before insulin, children with Type 1 diabetes typically died within months of diagnosis. Wards full of diabetic children in comas were common sights in hospitals. After insulin, these same children woke up, gained weight, and went home to live their lives.

By the end of 1922, insulin was being produced commercially, and the transformation was so profound that Banting and John Macleod (in whose laboratory the work was done) were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1923—one of the fastest Nobel recognitions in history! Banting was furious that Best wasn't included and shared his prize money with him, while Macleod shared his with Collip.

The discovery wasn't without controversy and drama. There were fierce disputes about credit, with Banting and Macleod barely on speaking terms. Banting was a surgeon with limited research experience, while Macleod was an established physiologist who had provided the lab space and guidance. Best was a medical student who'd been Banting's right hand throughout the work. And Collip's purification process was crucial to making insulin actually safe and effective for humans.

What makes this date particularly poignant is that it represents both the imperfection of scientific progress (that first failed injection) and the determination of researchers who didn't give up. That crude injection on January 11, 1922, wasn't the miracle moment—but it was the necessary first step.

Today, millions of people with diabetes live full, healthy lives thanks to insulin therapy. While we've made tremendous improvements—from animal-derived insulin to synthetic human insulin to insulin analogs—the fundamental breakthrough happened in that Toronto hospital room over a century ago, when a dying teenager received an impure injection that barely worked, but opened the door to one of medicine's greatest triumphs.


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