Gladys Lillian Boyd (December 26, 1893 – October 24, 1970) was a Canadian

paediatrician Pediatrics (American and British English differences, also spelled ''paediatrics'' or ''pædiatrics'') is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, Adolescence, adolescents, and young adults. In the United King ...

at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She was a pioneer in the treatment of

juvenile diabetes Type 1 diabetes (T1D), formerly known as juvenile diabetes, is an autoimmune disease that originates when cells that make insulin (beta cells) are destroyed by the immune system. Insulin is a hormone required for the cells to use blood sugar for ...

. A collaborator of Sir

Frederick Banting Sir Frederick Grant Banting (November 14, 1891 – February 21, 1941) was a Canadian medical scientist, physician, painter, and Nobel laureate noted as the co-discoverer of insulin and its therapeutic potential. In 1923, Banting and J ...

, she was one of the first physicians to treat diabetic children with

insulin Insulin (, from Latin ''insula'', 'island') is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the ''INS'' gene. It is considered to be the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism o ...

Career

upright=0.7, left, Elsie Needham was the first child to return from a diabetic coma due to insulin. Boyd graduated as a physician in 1918 from the

University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine The Temerty Faculty of Medicine (previously Faculty of Medicine) is the medical school of the University of Toronto. Founded in 1843, the faculty is based in Downtown Toronto and is one of Canada's oldest institutions of medical studies, being k ...

, where she had been the Undergraduate Medical Women's Council's director. She began a fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 1920 and was appointed the director of Endocrine Services in 1921. In that role, she conducted research in the treatment of

nephritis Nephritis is inflammation of the kidneys and may involve the glomeruli, tubules, or interstitial tissue surrounding the glomeruli and tubules. It is one of several different types of nephropathy. Types * Glomerulonephritis is inflammation of th ...

and

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. In 1922 she was appointed Chief of Paediatrics at

Women's College Hospital Women's College Hospital is a teaching hospital in downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the north end of Hospital Row, a section of University Avenue where several major hospitals are located. It currently functions as an independe ...

, and was the sole paediatrician at the hospital. Boyd worked closely with Sir

, whose research team were the first to isolate

, and was one of the first doctors to treat diabetic children with insulin. Boyd contacted Banting to get a vial of his new insulin extract in October 1922 to treat her 11-year-old patient, Elsie Needham, who was in a

diabetic coma Diabetic coma is a life-threatening but reversible form of coma found in people with diabetes mellitus. Three different types of diabetic coma are identified: #Severe low blood sugar in a diabetic person #Diabetic ketoacidosis (usually type 1) ...

; she made a rapid and remarkable recovery. Elsie Needham was the first child to return from a diabetic coma due to insulin. Boyd presented her research at the inaugural scientific meeting of the Society for the Study of Diseases of Children (now the

Canadian Paediatric Society The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) is a national association of paediatricians. As a voluntary professional association, the CPS represents more than 3,000 paediatricians, paediatric subspecialists, paediatric residents, and other people wh ...

), reporting 20 cases of children with diabetes treated with insulin and concluding that "insulin will probably not cure but arrests the course of the disease". She was awarded a

Doctor of Medicine Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin language, Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a profes ...

in 1924 and published the ''Manual for Diabetics'', with an introduction by Banting, in 1925. She was appointed Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (french: Collège royal des médecins et chirurgiens du Canada) is a regulatory college which acts as a national, nonprofit organization established in 1929 by a special Act of Parliament to o ...

and the

American College of Chest Physicians The American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST) is a medical association in the United States consisting of physicians and non-physician specialists in the field of chest medicine, which includes pulmonology, critical care medicine, and sleep med ...

in 1932, and was elected president of the Federation of Medical Women of Canada in the same year. She remained the head of Endocrine Services at the Hospital for Sick Children until 1950.

Personal life

Boyd was born in

York, Toronto York is a district and former city within Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located northwest of Old Toronto, southwest of North York and east of Etobicoke, where it is bounded by the Humber River. The district had a recorded population of 145 ...

to parents Edward John Boyd and Lillian Adair. She never married, and adopted a newborn daughter in 1932. Despite her career, she was never financially well-off, and was unable to own a home partly due to being an unmarried mother. She died in Toronto on October 24, 1970.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boyd, Gladys 1893 births 1970 deaths Canadian pediatricians Canadian endocrinologists Pediatric endocrinologists University of Toronto alumni Fellows of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada 20th-century Canadian women scientists Canadian women physicians 20th-century Canadian physicians Canadian diabetologists