Louisville's Wendy Novak Diabetes Institute receives national exposure on 'Today' show
The inspiring story of the woman whose name is honored by a Louisville diabetes center was featured on NBC's "TODAY Show" Tuesday morning.
When Wendy Novak was first diagnosed with the condition at the age of seven, the medical consensus was that child patients would die before they turned 40, she told the Courier Journal in 2022.
"I remember being the hospital bed and crying about the fact that I was going to have to do shots when I got home," Novak said during the segment.
With Type 1 diabetes, the body can not make enough insulin, the hormone that regulates glucose in the blood. Children and adults with Type 1 diabetes may be at risk for heart disease if they do not receive medicine, according to the Mayo Clinic.
When Novak was pregnant with her daughter Ashley, she said she experienced vision loss and other health complications due to her diabetes. Her trials with the chronic disease motivated her and her husband David, the CEO of Yum! Brands, to help fund a Norton Healthcare facility that serves children and adults up to the age of 26 with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.
"Kids need help and it's very important, because you are dealing with life and death," Novak told NBC's Sam Brock during the Tuesday interview.
The experience was fundamental to the Novak family's $15 million donation to Norton Healthcare in 2022 — the largest private individual gift in the hospital's history — aimed at expanding facilities and diabetes research, the Courier Journal previously reported.
More: How a $15M gift to Norton may very well transform diabetes care in Kentucky
A little over a year later, the diabetes institute now serves more than 69,000 patients from Kentucky and southern Indiana. It supports medical research, hosts summer camps for children, helps student athletes manage diabetes and provides care for pregnant mothers with diabetes.
Officials with the institute said they strive to be with their patients every step of the way during their health journey.
"We don't want individuals to be afraid of their diabetes. We want them to feel confident they can manage it and control it," Dr. Kupper Wintergerst, the institute's director, told NBC.
More: Why this family is gifting millions to Norton Children's Hospital in Louisville
Reach reporter Leo Bertucci at lbertucci@courierjournal.com or @leober2chee on X, formerly known as Twitter
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Louisville's Wendy Novak featured on NBC's 'TODAY' show
