author
Elizabeth Hughes
One of the earliest people to receive insulin, she became a symbol of how a medical breakthrough could turn a fatal childhood illness into a long life. Her story sits at the crossroads of family history, medicine, and remarkable personal endurance.
1 Audiobook
Women for votes
by Elizabeth Hughes
About the author
Born on August 19, 1907, in Albany, New York, Elizabeth Evans Hughes was the daughter of Charles Evans Hughes, who later served as U.S. Secretary of State and Chief Justice of the United States. As a child, she developed diabetes at a time when the disease was often fatal, and her health declined severely before insulin became available.
In 1922, she was among the first patients in the world — and the first American — to receive insulin treatment. The therapy transformed her life, and she lived for decades with diabetes at a time when long-term survival was still extraordinary.
Elizabeth Hughes later married and became Elizabeth Hughes Gossett. Today she is remembered not as an author in the usual sense, but as a historic figure whose letters and papers help tell the human story behind one of medicine's most important discoveries.