South Australian sisters with type-one diabetes call out 'inequitable' cost of essential devices
Sevanah and Georgia make almost 200 decisions every day just to stay alive – and while breakthrough technology offers hope, it comes at a cost.
A few years after her sister’s type-one diabetes diagnosis, Sevanah Pantelis started developing the same symptoms.
It was not long until Ms Pantelis, who was 10 years old at the time, was diagnosed with the same life-altering auto-immune condition as her younger sister Georgia.
“I was really annoyed that it got me too,” the now 30-year-old told The Advertiser.
The pair have spent the last two decades managing the difficult condition, constantly calculating, pricking their fingers and injecting themselves with insulin — until they started using an insulin pump.
“People with type one are making 180-plus additional decisions per day, it’s really fatiguing,” Ms Pantelis, who is a speech pathologist, said.
“We talk a lot about diabetes burnout and it’s not just for the person that’s diagnosed as the diabetic, it’s also the people in their close circle and vicinity around them.
“It’s hard to take the role of a pancreas.”
Ms Pantelis was diagnosed on August 11, 2005 after she presented to an emergency room.
“I felt really ill, very tired, very thirsty, wasn’t hungry, I was going to the toilet a lot,” the Pasadena woman said.
“I went straight to emergency and had all the tests done.”
Later her family received the call that she had type-one diabetes.
Ms Pantelis said because of her sister’s diagnosis years prior her family had made health adjustments already, but having to be personally responsible was a hard transition.
“All of a sudden, it was on me to not eat that chocolate when I really wanted to, without testing my sugar levels and giving some insulin for it,” she said.
“It changed a lot.”
But despite her diagnosis she said her family ensured her condition never limited her or her sister.
“I’ve played really high level sport at a semi professional level, I have a really good career … I travel the world,” she said.
Both the Pantelis sisters began using an Omnipod insulin pump in 2021 which provides automated insulin based on glucose readings.
“The device has been life-changing with reducing the amount of decisions that I need to make every day,” Ms Pantelis said.
But she doesn’t qualify for funding, meaning the device comes at an out-of-pocket cost.
“It’s quite inequitable at the moment for people that are diabetic,” she said.
“I’ve had no control over becoming diabetic, it wasn’t something that I did to get to this point.”
November 14 is World Diabetes Day and Ms Pantelis hopes while a cure is being found for type-one diabetes, those diagnosed with the condition will not need to be subject to thousands of dollars a year in costs to maintain their health.
Olivia was drinking 16 bottles of water a day before this diagnosis
