Cause, Symptoms & Treatments of Sickle Cell Anemia

Video Transcript

"Cause, symptoms, and treatment of Sickle Cell Anemia. First of all, the cause of Sickle Cell is a single gene the child is born with that's distorted. The red blood cell is distorted and it's half-moon in shape when you look under it under a microscope. Some of the problems that we're going to talk about comes initially and long term from the oxygen being, not being able to be taken up by the red blood cell because the movement of the blood cell is slow and it's distorted and so it's it's very difficult for the oxygen to be able to be transported within the blood system. Some of the symptoms are pain, just mighty aches and swelling and pain. The hands and feet will swell. There might be bacterial infections. The lungs and the heart are effected. There are, they can even develop into jaundice and seizures. There may be retinopothy with blindness. This person could also have a a congestive heart failure and stroke and liver damage and bone death so it is a very serious disorder. It's normally found in dark skin people, mostly in America, it's the Afro-American race and you also see it in in African race and in the Asian race. To be able to live with this disorder, it takes blood transfusions, normally, all the way through life at different times to be able to take care of the pain because the blood cell not being able to circulate like it should with the oxygen and there's a lot of pain that occurs also. And with also with infections, there's got to be anti-biotic therapy. Many times, the gall bladder's effected so they end up having surgery and having a colistectomy. So and there are also heart medications that these patients may have to go on. So it's not a a simple disorder, but with a proper diagnosis and proper follow up from a licensed medical physician, it is a, it is a way that can be handled and that they can live as as normal as possible."