Attack on Cardelia’s blood
- by John Syratt

6½ year-old suffers second stroke "The blood that brought me hope" is a line from a newer chorus being sung in several churches today. It has more than one meaning for Jackie Allen, mother of Cardelia, a 6½ year-old girl struggling with an incurable disease. Cardelia, at nine months, was normally very active but her mom noticed her just sitting still and barely moving. Her eyes were yellowed, and she had a high temperature. Blood tests revealed Cardelia had sickle cell anemia.

Sickle cell anemia is a life-long inherited red blood cell disease. Normal red blood cells are round, like donuts, and they move through the bloodstream to deliver oxygen. Sickle red blood cells become hard, sticky and shaped like sickles. When these hard and pointed cells go through the bloodstream, they clog the flow and break apart. This causes pain, damage and a low blood count, called anemia.

There are many complications of sickle cell disease including pain episodes, strokes, increased infection, leg ulcers, bone damage, yellow eyes or jaundice, early gallstones, lung damage, kidney damage and loss of body water in urine, blood blockages in the spleen or liver, eye damage, low red blood cell counts (anemia) and delayed growth.

A baby born with sickle cell anemia inherits a gene for the disorder from each parent. Some people inherit only one gene for the disease. This is referred to as having the sickle cell trait. People who have the sickle cell trait don’t develop the disease, but they can pass the gene on to their children.

Almost 10 percent of black Americans carry the sickle cell gene. Approximately 67 black infants affected with sickle cell disease will be born in Canada annually. Sickle cell anemia affects mainly blacks, though people of South American, Southern European or Middle Eastern descent also are at risk.

Cardelia was put on a daily regimen of penicillin and folic acid. She’ll be on it for the rest of her life.

On August 9, 2003, Cardelia screamed out in pain and started crying. Jackie ran downstairs to get some codeine for her daughter. "When I came up she was having a seizure," her mom reported, "her eyes rolled back in her head and she was throwing up at the same time."

Jackie called 911 and Cardelia was rushed to Alberta Children’s Hospital. MRI results showed this 6½ year old child just suffered a stroke, but what was startling was the evidence that this was not her first stroke. She’d previously had a "silent" stroke that no one knew about.

Cardelia improved for 3 or 4 days but the medical staff noticed she wasn’t walking properly. They thought the left side of her brain might have been damaged by the stroke. It was decided that the best thing for her would be to receive a blood transfusion on a monthly basis.

Jackie was asked to find 40 black people to possibly donate their blood to Cardelia, (whose blood type is RR B Negative). Jackie could only find 10 individuals and the tests on all ten would-be donors showed each of them having the sickle cell trait.

"Her hemoglobin is very low," Jackie said, "and she produces sickle cell blood. If she gets a disease-free blood with no sickle cell, it will help her." On August 17 of this year Cardelia received her first blood transfusion.

Dr. Wu, Cardelia’s doctor, decided to use R Positive blood. "That’s the closest match to Cardelia’s and she hasn’t had any reactions to it," reported Jackie. Cardelia now takes aspirin on a daily basis.

"She don’t like the pokes," her mom revealed. "Before the transfusion she goes into the hospital 2 days earlier for blood tests."

"She says she doesn’t like to be poked," Jackie continued, "I tell her it’s because she’s sick. She argues and fights with the nurses."

"There’s no cure, so there’s no hope," said Cardelia’s mom, "The blood is the only hope."

When asked how she was handling it, Jackie responded, "It’s taken me awhile to deal with it. I take it one day at a time and pray that I get the right blood."

Cardelia needs blood. "They’re trying to find some donors in Toronto. They have a large black community there," said Jackie. "White people with R Positive blood can donate as well."

With proper treatment, many people with sickle cell anemia lead productive lives and enjoy reasonably good health into their 40s and beyond. Cardelia’s grandmother passed away with Sickle Cell disease at the age of 35 when Jackie was just 8 years old.

To donate blood for Cardelia, call Dr. Wu’s office in Calgary at 403-234-9212.

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