Article content By the early 1920s, James Havens, a Kodak executive living in upstate New York, had known his son mostly as an invalid. After a diagnosis of juvenile diabetes at age 15, Jim Jr. had entered adulthood as an emaciated skeleton hovering in and out of coma. After years of desperately seeking out cures, Havens began hearing rumours of a team of Canadian doctors who were pioneering a “miracle” treatment for diabetes. Pulling on his Canadian contacts in the photography industry, Havens was able to secure several vials of the new treatment — the first ever shipped to the United States — just as his increasingly delirious son began to take a turn for the worst. In rare moments of clarity, the young Havens would reportedly wake up just enough to beg his doctors for death.