Yesterday I wrote and shared just an incredibly sad story. I shared this link:
http://www.cbs58.com/news/local-news/Mother-speaks-out-about-her-toddlers-death-210151081.html
The story was about a toddler of 20 months. He did not visit a doctor’s office who sent home with no blood test being done, he unfortunately, ‘just became unresponsive’. The coroner’s report stated that he had 4 times the normal blood sugar; but an exact ruling of his death has not been stated as of yet. The reason why this is important is that the child’s mom and loved ones saw nothing evident in the child the morning of his death. So although it is clear that the child may have had diabetes, whether it is the cause of death or not is just not absolutely conclusive at this point.
That said, the story on the news had many of you very upset as to the nature of the questions and the angle of the story.
Thousands read and thousands acted.
You got mad too. But more than that, you got involved. You replied here, you replied on the website of the station. You replied in force and YOU DID NOT MIX WORDS.
Many times when I ask people to reply on my articles; it is always good to reply on this site as oppose to just below the link on a FB page. This story showed me even further; how powerful WE ARE AS A COMMUNITY.
Everything caught the eye of the station. They read what you had to say both here and on their website.
Laura Rodriguez, the reporter who broke the story, called me last night after she sent me this email:
Hello Tom,
I’m Laura Rodriguez, the reporter who did the story. I responded to your phone call and left you a voicemail.
I appreciate the call and the feedback on your blog. I have spoken to several people, including the American Diabetes Association, about your concerns. I am working on a follow-up story to create awareness about the differences between Type1 and Type2 diabetes. If you’d like to share any more information about diabetes, feel free to reply to this email.
If you can put me in touch with anyone in the Milwaukee area that has a child with Type1 diabetes please let me know.
Thanks again for taking the time to call. I look forward to working on this story and will work hard to clarify any misconceptions. I understand how important this issue is to so many of you and I hope to work together to make sure we can make a difference, save lives, and inform everyone about Type 1 Diabetes.
Best,
Laura
Laura made it clear that she wants to ‘right this’ and the station is behind her to do a follow-up story. So if anyone is in that area….feel free to contact the station.
But a child is still gone. A family is still shattered. The loss is still monumental. This will not do. We will ‘not do nothing’ moving forward.
It is this kind of action that makes a difference. But we can not only act on reaction mode as each story comes about…..we have to do more. More on this in the VERY NEAR future, I promise.
We will do more…..and we will do it together.
I am a diabetes dad.
Please visit my Diabetes Dad FB Page and hit ‘like’.