Gladys Boyd | |
|---|---|
 Boyd in 1918 | |
| Born | December 26, 1893 York, Toronto, Canada |
| Died | October 24, 1970(1970-10-24) (aged 76) Toronto, Canada |
| Education | University of Toronto |
| Occupations | Paediatrician and researcher |
| Employer | Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto |
| Known for | Early demonstration of insulin working |
| Children | 1 |
Gladys Lillian Boyd (December 26, 1893[1] – October 24, 1970) was a Canadianpaediatrician at theHospital for Sick Children in Toronto. She was a pioneer in the treatment ofjuvenile diabetes. A collaborator of SirFrederick Banting, she was one of the first physicians to treat diabetic children withinsulin.[2][3]
.jpg)
Boyd graduated as a physician in 1918 from theUniversity of Toronto Faculty of Medicine, where she had been the Undergraduate Medical Women's Council's director. She began a fellowship at theHospital for Sick Children in Toronto in 1920 and was appointed the director of Endocrine Services in 1921.[5] In that role, she conducted research in the treatment ofjuvenile diabetes,nephritis andtuberculosis.[3] In 1922, she was appointed Chief of Paediatrics atWomen's College Hospital,[2] and was the sole paediatrician at the hospital.[2]
Boyd worked closely with SirFrederick Banting, whose research team were the first to isolateinsulin,[5] and was one of the first doctors to treat diabetic children with insulin.[2] 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 adiabetic coma; she made a rapid and remarkable recovery.[5] Elsie Needham was the first child to return from a diabetic coma due to insulin.[4] Boyd presented her research at the inaugural scientific meeting of the Society for the Study of Diseases of Children (now theCanadian Paediatric Society), 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".[5]
She was awarded aDoctor of Medicine in 1924 and published theManual for Diabetics, with an introduction by Banting, in 1925. She was appointed Fellow of theRoyal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and theAmerican College of Chest Physicians in 1932,[5] and was elected president of theFederation of Medical Women of Canada in the same year.[3] She remained the head of Endocrine Services at the Hospital for Sick Children until 1950.[3]
Boyd was born inYork, Toronto to parents Edward John Boyd and Lillian Adair.[1] 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.[5]