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AAP News Vol. 14 No. 10 October 1998, p. 1 © 1998 American Academy of Pediatrics
Ask Hoover Adger Jr., M.D., FAAP, to describe the often hellish world of America's 9 million or so children of alcoholics, or "COAs," and the Johns Hopkins Hospital pediatrician will quickly tell you the story of one of his favorite patients, an 11-year-old boy named Billy. "I first treated Billy several years ago, while working as an outpatient clinician at Hopkins," said Dr. Adger, a national expert on adult alcohol abuse and its effects on children. "Billy had been diagnosed as having Type I diabetes at the age of 2, and he had been seen by multiple specialists throughout the hospital. One major problem was that he kept presenting with new-onset seizures in the emergency room, along with low blood sugar.
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