- Target:
- Unity Point
- Region:
- United States of America
- Website:
- www.sicklecelldisease.org
Sickle Cell Disease is a blood disorder that is more common in certain ethnic groups, including: people of African descent, including African-Americans (among whom 1 in 12 carries a sickle cell gene) Hispanic-Americans from Central and South America. People of Middle Eastern, Asian, Indian, and Mediterranean descent. With Sickle Cell Disease, the red blood cells contort into a crescent shape. The red blood cells die early causing anemia, as well as block blood vessels causing pain. As simple as it sounds, there is nothing simple about this disease. Not too long ago, Sickle cell was fatal to the majority of the people it affected. Now, there are many treatments available, but sadly no cure. There are many signs and symptoms of this disease such as: severe pain, fatigue, surgical repairs, blood clots, aneurysms, many hospital stays, and death. It varies by the type of sickle cell disease, the patient, and the education of your healthcare provider. Do you know someone with cancer? Most of us can name atleast one person that we know who has been affected by the disease. Do you know someone with Sickle Cell Disease? Have you ever heard of it? Sickle Cell Disease is treated by the same group of doctors (hematologists) that treat cancer since it is a blood disorder/disease. According to the CDC, 100,000 people are born with this disease per year in the U.S. sadly not all physicians/nurses know about the disease to know how to treat it, leading to patients enduring negligence or self-treating, or patients having to educate their doctors on how to treat them.
Sandra Spencer was born with Sickle Cell type SC. It is one of the more severe types, that has led to frequent hospitalizations since she was an infant, numerous surgeries, early retirement, and near-death experiences. Sickle Cell Disease also claimed the life of her sister via aneurysym in 2015, who has the type known as Thallassemia. In all of these hospitalizations, the patients experienced neglect or uneducated providers. Hospital staff were guilty of : telling the patient they were not in any pain, disposal of pain medication due to nursing staff not thinking patient needed it, saying the patient's pain was not real, drug testing patient without consent because they think the patient is drug seeking because of a complaint of pain. There are tons of experiences that this patient and others have endured, and ultimately lost their lives over. So we are pleading to the public to help us get a protocol established for Sickle Cell Patients, and to require physicians to learn more about the disease so they are able to treat it more efficiently.
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