Utah dad turns daughter's Type 1 diabetes experience into push for a cure

SALEM, Utah County — Seven-year-old Caroline Holt doesn't remember life without Type 1 diabetes.

"It's been pretty hard since I've been like 10 months old," she said.

Her dad, Devin Holt, remembers the morning everything changed. He woke up to find baby Caroline struggling to breathe.

"Our pediatric endocrinologist told us that she had about six more hours before we could have lost her," he said.

Caroline was in diabetic ketoacidosis, a life-threatening complication of diabetes. Her blood sugar was over 600.

"We were extremely terrified," Devin Holt said. "Thank goodness we got her there in time."

Her family quickly learned that managing Type 1 diabetes would require constant attention. With no family history of the disease, the diagnosis caught them completely off guard.

"We had to teach ourselves a lot," Devin Holt said. "It's a terrifying, overwhelming experience to receive this diagnosis. Your life as you knew it has changed."

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic autoimmune disease where the pancreas makes little or no insulin, a hormone the body needs to regulate blood sugar. An estimated 2.1 million people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, according to the CDC.

Today, Caroline uses an insulin pump and glucose monitor to manage her blood sugar.

She's an active 7-year-old who loves basketball, tennis, riding her bike and scooter and spending time with her four siblings.

But diabetes can sometimes interrupt those activities.

"It makes me drop a little bit, and I have to go inside sometimes when I'm like jumping on the tramp or something like that," she said.

She added it's hard "feeling sick and having to poke a lot."

"Last year, we made the choice to pull her out of public school, because it just became too difficult to manage her blood sugar while she was in school, when she was at PE or recess," Devin Holt said.

Devin Holt, a nurse anesthetist, has been sharing what he has learned about Type 1 diabetes with other families online.

"About five years ago, I decided to start a small Facebook group where I could just put out educational content," he said.

Crushing T1 has since expanded across social media, where Devin Holt said the community now reaches thousands of people around the world.

He's heard from families as far away as South Africa, Australia and Brazil.

"Type 1 diabetes knows no borders," Devin Holt said.

Last month, Devin Holt took that work a step further by launching the Crushing T1 Foundation, a nonprofit focused on raising awareness and accelerating research toward a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

"We want to do everything we can to bring Caroline closer to a cure," he said. "The science is happening, and we need to do everything we can to push it forward. I don't think there is a disease out there that needs a cure so badly, and at the same time, is so close to achieving a functional cure."

Some of the research Devin Holt is following is showing promising early results. In one small University of Chicago Medicine study, all 12 patients who received donor islet-cell transplants, alongside an investigational anti-rejection drug, achieved insulin independence.

The approach is still being studied and is not widely available. But for Caroline, that progress is a reason for optimism.

"We're getting closer and closer," she said.

"She really is the bravest girl. She's my hero," her dad said. "I hope to be as brave as her one day. I don't think I'll get there, but that's my hope."

For more information on the Holts' story and the Crushing T1 Foundation, visit CrushingT1.org.

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