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Eva Saxl
Name:
Eva Saxl

Date of birth:
1921

Hometown:
Prague, Czechoslovakia

Diabetes Type:
Type 1

Eva Saxl’s ingenuity, alongside her husband, Victor, saved her life throughout World War II as the couple made their own insulin to keep Eva alive.

After fleeing their home in Czechoslovakia, which was occupied by the Nazis, the Saxls settled in Shanghai in 1940, the same year in which Eva was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.

Eva and Victor purchased water buffalo pancreases and successfully created working insulin, despite the risks being unclear, which they then gave to roughly 400 people in their Shanghai ghetto.

After the Americans liberated their Jewish ghetto, Eva and Victor moved to New York, where Eva became a spokeswoman for the American Diabetes Association.

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