Thieves steal Merced woman's personal diabetes manager

MERCED, Calif. (KFSN) -- In the North Valley, a young woman with a life-threatening disease is pleading with thieves to return her lifeline.

Brittani Chavez, 20, of Merced, has Type 1 diabetes -- a rare form of the disease that has no cure. So when a tool she relies on was stolen in the middle of the night, she was outraged.

Early Monday morning she said thieves broke into her car and stole her purse. But she said a small gadget is all she wants back -- a personal diabetes manager, or PDM, that acts as her pancreas.

"Everybody that's not a diabetic has working ones inside them; those that don't we carry insulins or our PDMs to make sure that we have our pancreas," said Chavez.

To replace the pump, Chavez says it'll cost $600. It's extra money the young mother and nursing student says she doesn't have. Her car alarm did go off in the middle of the night, but by the time she ran out, the suspect had gotten away.

"They did go ahead and fingerprint the door, but unless the prints are in their database, it's not likely that they'll get a hit," said Chavez.

Without the PDM, Chavez says she could fall into a coma or die. She now has to manually inject herself with insulin but has to check with her doctor several times a day so she doesn't overdose.

"It can really hurt someone. It could cause a death," said Chavez.

She's is offering a reward for her PDM but hopes the thief will just return it to her doorstep.