First Aid for Sickle Cell Crisis

 First Aid for Sickle Cell Crisis

Alexandria Cade

September 7, 2016

CHHS 140-1B

Some may not know what Sickle Cell Anemia is and what effects it causes to ones life. Sickle Cell anemia is caused by an inherited genetic disorder, that is believed to be the result of an evolved response to the disease malaria. It is caused when a child receives one sickle gene from each parent. If a child only receives a gene from one parent he or she will only have the sickle cell trait; but if a child receives two he or she will develop the disease. The gene can be passed on from generation to generation. This genetic disorder can also lead to an inaccurate amino acid. There aren't many signs of sickle cell but it causes a lot of pain in the joints. The blood cells are shaped like a crescent moon which means the blood isn't able to carry or release oxygen like regular blood cells. However, when having sickle cell anemia it is hard for the blood to clot and that makes it hard for them to have any type of procedures done. Not to mention, there is a thing called a sickle cell crisis. A sickle cell crisis develops during an infection, pregnancy, or anesthetics; when increased numbers of sickle shaped cells clump together. The crisis can occur occasionally or frequently. When frequent crisis occur it causes other chronic conditions through damaged tissues.  Sickle cell crisis causes severe pain in the back abdomen, arms, and legs; it can also cause swelling in the joints, tiredness and weakness. In my opinion this article is absolutely correct. My father had sickle cell disease. It caused him so much pain to the point he would have to walk around with crutches. When I was a little girl I would always hear him saying "ouch" "my leg my leg". I never could understand why the illness caused him so much pain until I asked him more details about it. One day I remember him washing dishes with his leg propped up in a chair. In that same chair he scooted around the house because he was in so much pain. At night before he went to sleep, I would wrap his leg with a leg wrap and heating pad to his leg to help ease the pain. This helped him to rest better. However, the next morning the pain was still there. It hurt me so bad to see him in so much pain and I couldn’t figure out why it wasn't a cure for that. It saddens me to say that during his last sickle cell crisis, he was admitted into ICU he was in there a period of 3 months. During this time his organs begin to fail which caused multiple complications. They had to give him plasma continuously every hour around the clock because his blood was not clotting. While trying to insert the needle to start dialysis, he began to bleed out due to blood not clotting. This caused him to be on the ventilator. He never recovered and ended up passing away January, 2012.