A woman who lived with type 1 diabetes for 81 years, is now 92 years old. It is truly a miracle

One of the oldest Americans with Type 1 diabetes still living is a great-grandmother from Long Island.

As a young girl, she was told she wouldn’t live more than a few years. Her longevity, according to experts, is live proof of great promise for a full life, as CBS2’s Carolyn Gusoff reports.

Libby Lashansky confided: “I was told I would probably have about a three-to-five-year lifespan.”

81 years of time proved the doctors’ predictions completely wrong.

Her Type 1 diabetes was discovered when she was 11 years old. The Great Neck woman, who is now 92 years old, is one of the oldest cases with the lifetime diagnosis.

Son-in-law Saul Brenner said: “She really is a miracle because when she had diabetes, no one ever would have expected her to live this long.”

Juvenile diabetes, as it was known at the time, was viewed as a death sentence until insulin was discovered a century ago.

Lashansky told: “I was told I shouldn’t have children. It would kill me.”

She now considers her life to have been fulfilled after having two children, seven grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren. She also pursued a medical career.

She gives credit to significant developments in insulin pumps and glucose monitoring. She injects herself five times a day with tiny needles, and the old-fashioned monitoring is long gone.

Lashansky shared: “Have a balance between the carbohydrates, the protein and the fats.”

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