Juvenile diabetes or Type 1 diabetes typically manifests itself in children and adolescents and continues through adulthood. It is a chronic disease that has no cure but can be successfully treated with regular injections of insulin and careful management of food intake and blood sugar. Juvenile diabetes means that the pancreas has stopped producing insulin. Without insulin the body cannot process sugars and turn sugars into energy.
When juvenile diabetes is not treated, several immediate conditions may arise including hyperglycemia, hypoglycemia, ketoacidosis and celiac disease. Even if diabetes is treated effectively, long term diabetes complications may arise. These can include heart disease, kidney disease, and nerve disease, problems with circulation and extremities and blindness. All of these problems can advance into life threatening conditions.
This is a disease that is particularly hard on children. Checking blood sugar by pricking the fingers, giving shots, or using an insulin pump and being so specific about food intake are all hard skills to master, not to mention painful and against the grain for young kids. The disease itself is also hard to live with because a young child may not be as well equipped as an adult at recognizing warning signs of imbalanced blood sugar. As it plagues the child, so too does it plague the parents who are tasked with ensuring that their child is keeping up with their new healthcare regime. Diagnosing diabetes in young children means detecting symptoms like frequent urination, excessive thirst, extreme hunger, unusual weight loss, increased fatigue, irritability and blurry vision.
The roots of diabetes are unknown. In adult-onset diabetes, or Type 2 diabetes, there have been some studies that indicate ties to obesity and other physical factors. In some cases, children have developed Juvenile diabetes because of medication they have taken. Children and adolescents suffering from mental disorders like schizophrenia, ADHD and bed wetting have been prescribed medications like Zyprexa in their course of treatment. Zyprexa is an anti-psychotic medication and has been linked to the onset of drug induced diabetes and to other blood sugar disorders in children who are taking the medication.
This is clearly a product defect from design and you may very well be able to file a product liability lawsuit or a medical malpractice lawsuit against the manufacturer of the drug or against the physician who prescribed it.
This is a lifelong disease and if your child has developed drug related Type 1 diabetes because of a medication like Zyprexa, you may have grounds to sue based on product liability. Defective medications cause harm to millions of people each year and to have your child afflicted with a disease that is a trial to live with day to day and that can have life threatening complications is unconscionable.
You should contact a defective drug attorney, medical malpractice attorney or a product liability attorney to review your case. You may be able to secure compensation and redress for your child, help pay their medical expenses from the past and into the future and secure compensation them for pain and suffering for developing drug induced diabetes.