# Eva Saxl

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Eva_Saxl
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Eva_Saxl.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Saxl
> Source revision: 1258890382
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

**Eva Saxl** (1921–2002) was a self-taught manufacturer of [insulin](/source/Insulin) and an advocate for people with [Type 1 diabetes](/source/Type_1_diabetes). Saxl was born in [Prague](/source/Prague), [Czechoslovakia](/source/Czechoslovakia).

## Insulin production

In 1940, during [World War II](/source/World_War_II), she and her husband, Victor Saxl, fled to [Shanghai](/source/Shanghai), [China](/source/China). In Shanghai, a year later, Saxl was diagnosed with [Type 1 diabetes](/source/Type_1_diabetes). When the Japanese [attacked Pearl Harbor](/source/Attacked_Pearl_Harbor) in 1941 the [Japanese occupation of China](/source/Japanese_occupation_of_China) was tightened, and soon all the pharmacies in Shanghai were closed. Saxl had no legal access to [insulin](/source/Insulin). It was possible to buy insulin on the [black market](/source/Black_market) using one-ounce gold bars for payment. But that was not the safest option; one of Eva's friends died from using the black market insulin.

Eventually, Victor and Eva decided to get insulin another—highly unconventional—way: make it themselves. The book "Beckman's Internal Medicine"[Note 1] described the methods that [Frederick Banting](/source/Frederick_Banting) and [Charles Best](/source/Charles_Best_(medical_scientist)) first used to extract insulin from the [pancreases](/source/Pancreas) of dogs, calves, and cows in 1921.

A Chinese chemist lent them a small laboratory in the basement of a municipal building, where they attempted to extract insulin from pancreata of [water buffaloes](/source/Water_buffalo). After much work, they finally produced a brown-coloured insulin. The insulin was tested on rabbits starved for twenty-four hours and then divided into two groups. One group was injected with the extracted mix, and the other with Eva's insulin. Without equipment to test the rabbits’ urine or blood, the best way Victor could test the potency of the insulin was to see if the rabbits experienced the same [hypoglycaemic shock](/source/Hypoglycaemic_shock) as the other rabbits. After testing the insulin on rabbits for more than a year, Eva was running out of conventional insulin and cautiously tried it on herself-–and it worked.

In the [Jewish ghetto](/source/Shanghai_Ghetto) where they were living, many other people with type 1 diabetes were also in dire need of insulin. Eva gave her insulin to two boys in a nearby hospital who were in [diabetic comas](/source/Diabetic_coma).

With a successful batch of homemade insulin, the Saxls began production of insulin for all people with Type 1 diabetes in the Shanghai Ghetto. In all, over 200 people survived between 1941 and 1945 and there were no fatalities reported as a result of tainted insulin.

The Saxls left Shanghai after World War II and emigrated to the United States. Eva and [Elliott P. Joslin](/source/Elliott_P._Joslin), MD, founder of today's [Joslin Diabetes Center](/source/Joslin_Diabetes_Center) in [Boston](/source/Boston), [Massachusetts](/source/Massachusetts), befriended each other, and soon Dr. Joslin began inviting Eva to give lectures to groups of children and diabetes organizations. She became the first vocal spokesperson for [Type 1 diabetes](/source/Type_1_diabetes). Her husband worked for the [United Nations](/source/United_Nations).

## After WWII

In 1968, Victor Saxl died and Eva moved to [Santiago](/source/Santiago), Chile, to live with her brother, her only living relative. There she would remain vigilant as an advocate for people with Type 1 diabetes. Eva Saxl died in 2002 in Santiago.

The Saxls' story was dramatized by the 1956–1958 [CBS](/source/CBS) television show *[Telephone Time](/source/Telephone_Time)* in an episode titled "Time Bomb".

## Notes

1. Note01

## References

- ["Wife Stricken in War-Torn China, Husband Develops Own Insulin Lab"](https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=zOErAAAAIBAJ&sjid=12UFAAAAIBAJ&pg=1629%2C3743614). *[Kentucky New Era](/source/Kentucky_New_Era)*. 1951-11-06. p. 14.
- Mclean, Radha (2002), "Eva's Insulin"
- Hirsch, James (2006), [*Cheating Destiny: Living with Diabetes, America's biggest epidemic*](https://archive.org/details/cheatingdestinyl00hirs), Boston: [Houghton Mifflin Co.](/source/Houghton_Mifflin_Co.), ISBN 0-618-51461-9

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Eva Saxl](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Saxl) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Saxl?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.