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Madeleine Bebout
Photo: Cleveland Clinic Archives | Colorized by Sanna Dullaway
Orphan Madeleine Bebout was one of the first children with diabetes in the world to benefit from lifesaving insulin treatment at Cleveland Clinic in the 1920s. Physician Henry John, MD, became her legal guardian, and she was unofficially adopted by staff nurses. Madeleine even got her own nursing uniform as a birthday gift. She wore it to “treat” her dolls for various ailments and to reassure real-life patients before operations.