Risca teen athlete’s diabetes drama (From Campaign Series)

Risca teen athlete’s diabetes drama

8:20am Sunday 31st January 2010

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A TEENAGE athlete is back on the running track just weeks after he was rushed to hospital with serious complications caused by undetected diabetes.

Fourteen-year-old Ben Jones, from Risca, was rushed to Newport’s Royal Gwent Hospital on January 16 with acute ketoacidosis.

The serious condition is caused by a severe insulin deficiency in the body if diabetics miss their regular injections or if, as in Ben's case, a patient does not know he is suffering from diabetes.

Untreated, a patient's body starts to shut down and they are at risk of falling into a diabetic coma.

Dad Iain said Ben began eating and drinking large amounts after Christmas, but thought it was down to the amount of sport his son was doing.

Ben, who attends Cwmcarn high school, is currently the year nine Gwent schools' league champion for cross-country running.

But when Ben could not stop vomiting on January 16, he was rushed to St Woolos out of hours clinic where doctors immediately diagnosed him with Type 1 diabetes and acute ketoacidosis.

As Ben’s body began to shut down, doctors put him on a saline and insulin drip for 24 hours in a high dependency unit.

He stabilised the next day and has now learned to give himself the insulin injections he needs four times a day.

Just a day later doctors allowed him to return home, and the determined teenager is now back at school and running again.

Mr Jones said: “He has just amazed us and the staff at the hospital. We just want to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped Ben. If I had sent him to bed that night, he would not have been up in the morning.”

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