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Mark's Story

Mark Pietrovito is a 20-year-old boy from Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Mark was diagnosed with juvenile diabetes seven years ago. As an active teenager, Mark enjoys snowboarding, surfing and inline skating. Although diabetes has not stopped him from participating in these activities, he constantly has to interrupt his life to address his condition. He accounts for everything that he eats, he takes insulin with his meals and his blood sugar levels are continually monitored.

On top of dealing with juvenile diabetes and the restrictions and necessary treatment factors that come along with the disease, Mark must wear a medical emergency bracelet. Being a teenage boy who's not real fond of "jewelry," Mark did not want to wear the bracelet. In fact, he refused.

Mark's mother, Brooke, was very upset that her son would not wear his medical emergency bracelet. One of the side effects of low blood sugar caused by juvenile diabetes is behavior change. People become erratic, angry and often appear to be intoxicated. Brooke feared that if her son was not wearing his medical emergency bracelet and his blood sugar level dropped, someone might mistake his symptoms for alcohol or drug use and take him to the police station, where he might go into diabetic shock, instead of the hospital, where he would get life-saving treatment.

Brooke was so upset, in fact, that she even considered having Mark tattoo his medical ID information, which is usually found on a medical emergency bracelet, onto his left wrist. However, before taking this drastic approach, they found Hope Paige Designs, a premier provider of fashionable medical emergency bracelets and awareness jewelry. Hope Paige Designs offers an entire line of contemporary medical emergency bracelets for men, women, boys and girls. Mark was happily surprised when he first saw the bracelets and especially liked the black leather cuff that looked much like cuffs worn by his peers and, more importantly, was unrecognizable to the untrained eye as a medical emergency bracelet.

Mark now wears his Hope Paige Designs medical emergency bracelet on his left wrist (where medical professionals know to look for any medical information) every day, so he and his mother now have one less concern on their plates. Mark feels that the Hope Paige Designs medical emergency bracelets will help other diabetics like him feel comfortable wearing the life-saving accessory.