Among the more than 60 funds administered by the Blessing Foundation is the Diabetes Patient Care Fund. It might not be as well-known as the funds that help cancer, heart, or hospice patients.
But it’s just as vital.
It helps patients like Angie and so many others better manage their diabetes. They get the supplies, nutrition, and other support that they need to stay healthy. Otherwise, they’re at high risk for hospitalization, life-threatening complications, and other chronic diseases.
“If we don’t take care of the root problem – diabetes – patients will continue to have heart problems, kidney failure, and hypertension,” said Erin VonderHaar, nurse manager, Blessing Diabetes and Wound Center.
Diabetes is the leading cause of heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness, and lower-limb amputations.
The prevalence of diabetes is staggering.
More than 30 million people in the U.S., or 9.4 percent of the population, live with the disease and an additional 84 million adults have prediabetes.
In Adams County, the stats are even more distressing: 11.2 percent of the population has diabetes. That doesn’t include those who are undiagnosed or who have prediabetes, VonderHaar said.