Blood, donor drive to benefit girl with sickle cell anemia

Published: Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at 12:39 p.m. Last Modified: Tuesday, October 28, 2014 at 12:39 p.m.

Jaimonee Hagins, 12, a seventh-grade student at Howard Middle School, needs a blood and marrow transplant to help battle the disease, which often has her in such deep pain she cannot attend classes.

Understanding only too well the ravages of sickle cell anemia is her mother, Charlet Harrison, of Ocala. She and her brother Myron Harrison grew up with the condition.

Sickle cell anemia is the most common form of sickle cell disease, an inherited disorder in which red blood cells are abnormally shaped. This results in painful episodes, serious infections, chronic anemia and damage to body organs.

According to the National Institutes of Health, a blood and marrow stem cell transplant can work well for treating sickle cell anemia as it replaces faulty stem cells with healthy ones. Stem cells are found in bone marrow.

According to Dr. Ali Nassar of Munroe Heart, A bone marrow transplant produces new cells. Donor to recipient genetically must be a close match. Only with identical twins is the match 100 percent. If the procedure is a success, it is considered a cure.

I hope I will find a donor. If they help me, they will save my life, Jaimonee said.

When asked what has been the most difficult part of her disorder, she said the surgeries. She also said the frequent pain is real achy.

According to her mother, Jaimonees surgeries have included removal of her spleen, at age 1, and her gall bladder, at age 4. She has had episodes affecting other major organs.

Blood cells get clogged. Normally, they are round in shape in order to flow through the body. When they get clogged, they cause pain, Charlet Harrison said. A clog on an arm or leg is easy to get over; it is when they get clogged in your heart or another major organ that damage occurs. The spleen and gall bladder, with sickle cell patients, are the first to go. Seventy-five percent of patients have these organs removed.

See the article here:
Blood, donor drive to benefit girl with sickle cell anemia