Elizabeth Hughes Gossett

Elizabeth Hughes Gossett (1907-1981) the daughter of U.S. Politician Charles Evans Hughes, was one of the first humans injected with insulin.

Elizabeth contracted diabetes in 1919 at age 11. She was treated initially by Dr. F.M. Allen at his special clinic, the Physiatric Institute in Morristown, New Jersey. Dr. Allen put Elizabeth on a strict diet and continued to monitor her condition over the next three years while she lived at home with a private nurse.

By the winter of 1921/22 her health was deteriorating seriously. In 1922 her mother contacted Canadian doctor Frederick Banting in Toronto. Elizabeth came to Toronto with her mother in August 1922 and began receiving insulin from Dr. Banting. [http://content.karger.com/produktedb/produkte.asp?typ=fulltext&file=HRE2005064S02098 Resurrections in Toronto: The Emergence of Insulin] ]

Elizabeth's health continued to improve with insulin treatment. She returned to school in 1923 and graduated from Barnard College in 1929. In 1930 she married William T. Gossett. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A03E2DA1638F934A15757C0A967948260 Elizabeth H. Gossett, a Trustee Of Barnard College, Is Dead at 73] ] They lived in Bloomfield, Michigan and had two daughters and a son. [http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hollow/9076/FOGp3.html Family of Gosett] ]

Elizabeth Gossett was active in civic affairs in the Detroit area. She was a member of the board of trustees of Barnard College, one of the founding trustees of Oakland College, Rochester, a member of the Detroit Urban League, as well as a volunteer at the Merrill-Palmer Institute and at Michigan State University. She was best known as the founder of the Supreme Court Historical Society in 1972 and served as its president until 1979.

Elizabeth Gossett died of pneumonia on April 21, 1981 at the age of seventy-three. Few of her friends or associates knew of her diabetic condition.

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