Adrift at sea. A sinking ship. Without a life raft.
That is how the devastating news of the closing of the Rice Diabetes and Nutrition Center has affected the many area families trying to manage this chronic disease and its complications.
Ever since our primary care provider diagnosed diabetes in our 2-year-old son on Nov. 8, 1994, Deb Lippert and the staff at the Diabetes Center have been our lifeline.
From the preschool through the teen years, we have spent uncountable hours at the center, and have made numerous after-clinic-hours frantic calls to the nurse educators' homes. Always they have provided proactive, current help, and the necessary confidence and encouragement to face the normal and emergency aspects of diabetes management.
Again this past March 17, when our 19-year-old college age son tested positive with type 1 diabetes, Deb Lippert was the person we knew could help. Before that day was over, the capable staff at the Willmar Diabetes Center had him armed with the necessary insulin, syringes, monitor and enough knowledge to get him through until his next scheduled follow-up appointment three days later.
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Since diabetes management can never take a day off, the Rice diabetes educators have always been accessible, day or night. The health professionals of the Diabetes Center are not just doing their jobs. They have a passion and a mission to "help others live well with diabetes."
With the increase of patients being diagnosed with diabetes and 7.8 percent of the population already diagnosed with diabetes, closing the Rice Diabetes and Nutrition Center makes no medical sense. We fear for the current patients of the Diabetes Center and those soon to be diagnosed. Save our ship, SOS.
Teri and Marv Buschette
Litchfield
