BY TERI R. WILLIAMS PHOTOS BY DAPHNE WALKER
Keep Moving
FORWARD
When teen Hudson Sumner discovered he had a life-threatening
disease, he didn't let it get in the way of all things he loves to do.
Hudson went to bed early that night saying only that he wasn’t feeling well. An active
eight-year-old boy, he was rarely sick. But his mother, Shanna Burkett, figured it was
the stomach virus going around, and kept him home from school the following day
as a precaution. When she returned from work to check on her son, she could hardly
believe the change in his appearance in only a
few short hours. “All that night, he couldn’t keep
anything down and kept saying he was thirsty,”
said Shanna.
When she got Hudson to the Vidalia
Children's Center, and he stepped on the
scales, Shanna nearly fainted. Her son had lost
seventeen pounds from his weight recorded
two weeks earlier. She asked that a finger stick
be done. “He has a first cousin and two third
cousins, all on his father’s side, with Type 1
Diabetes, and genetics can definitely be a factor,”
said Shanna. Her mind ran through all the
symptoms for Type 1 Diabetes: extreme thirst,
excessive urination, weight loss, fatigue and
nausea. They were all there.
Hudson’s blood sugar levels were too high
to get a reading with a finger stick. He was
immediately sent to the emergency room. “In
the ER, his blood sugar registered 1100. I was
told it was the highest reading they had ever had
at this hospital,” said Shanna. The doctor on call
immediately started an insulin pump. As soon as
his blood sugar was stabilized, Hudson was sent
by ambulance to a hospital in Savannah.
That was January 22, 2014. And from that
day forward, their lives would never been the
same.
We’ve all seen the little boxes to check on a
family history medical form to indicate if a family
member has ever been diagnosed with Type 1 or
Type 2 Diabetes. Unless you or a family member
has one or the other, you’re probably unfamiliar
22 TOOMBS COUNTY MAGAZINE