“We had to leave the hospital that night without him. My life turned completely upside down and I was heartbroken.”
Photo: Beth Baldwin
Soon, the Baldwins turned their grief over Peter’s sudden and unnecessary death into a crusade for type 1 diabetes awareness. Beth believes Peter could have been saved if he had been diagnosed at that doctor’s visit, and wants ALL doctors to ask ill children these 4 “T” questions:
- Toilet – going to the toilet a lot, bed wetting by a previously dry child or heavier diapers in babies
- Thirsty – being really thirsty and not being able to quench the thirst
- Tired – feeling more tired than usual
- Thinner – losing weight
She says Peter had ALL of these symptoms and if the doctor had just asked, perhaps his diabetes would have been uncovered in time. Additionally, if the answers to ANY of these questions is “yes,” Baldwin advocates that the doctor or their staff immediately perform a simple finger-stick test, which gives results in about a minute or less.
Photo: Beth Baldwin
“Peter wasn’t a sickly child and the GP was correct to diagnose him as having a chest infection. But the examination stopped there without exploring if anything else was wrong, even though he was very ill,” she says. Changing that, Baldwin says, WILL save lives.
Baldwin and her family have joined together to spread this awareness with Diabetes UK, but I would LOVE to see this message spread to the U.S as well! I have a few friends with little ones you have type 1 diabetes, and getting it diagnosed on time is CRITICAL. So my friends, in Peter’s memory, I ask that you SPREAD this word across the U.S. as well! Let’s ask our doctors – and our SELVES to ask the 4 “Ts” if our kids seem unusually ill. It’s not going to hurt, and it might just save a life.
