Sickle Cell Anemia
Sickle Cell AnemiaSickles Cell Anemia in Children (10 pgs)
In 1904 a hospital intern at The Presbyterian Hospital in Chicago Illinois, Dr. Earnest Irons, who was the first physician to describe sickle cells, wrote a report on Walter Clement Noel�s blood.
Also in 1904, Dr. James B. Herrick, a Chicago Physician, treated a twenty- year-old college student from the West Indian islands of Grenada. The young man went to Herrick complaining of shortness of breath, heart problems, abnormal pain, and aches and pains in his muscles. The patient explained to Herrick that he is tired al the time, he said he had headaches, he get dizzy sometimes and have had ulcers in his legs. Dr. Herrick took notes and took a sample of the man blood and viewed it under a microscope. The man blood cell where long and curved instead of round. The blood shapes on the microscope where not blood cell of anemia. The Dr. studied the disease for six years after he view it.
1910, Dr. Herrick was the first person to publish a medical report on sickle cell anemia. As the report accumulated, a patter emerged. In 1926, Dr. Thomas P. Cooley and Dr. P. Lee described two forms of sickle cell disease: sickle cell anemia and sickle cell trait. During 1945, Dr. Linus Pauling discovered that an abnormal form of hemoglobin was the reason for the sickness in sickle cell patients. These two took a train together and started talking about sickle cell anemia. Castle told Pauling about how the cells in sickle cell patients sickled when their oxygen level is low. Paling was amazed by this conversation and did further research on the disease. After that
Pauling was able to tell which patient had sickle cell trait and which one had the disease.
In 1956, Dr. Vernon Ingram made a distinction between normal and abnormal hemoglobin. Dr. Ingram used Pauling�s test to find the key difference. Like other proteins, hemoglobin is made up of chains of smaller chemical building blocks and amino acids. Dr. Ingram used enzymes of other chemicals to break the bond in the hemoglobin molecule. He discovered two proteins had different amino acids in one spot on the chain. Linus Pauling was a pioneer in sickle cell disease research.
In December 1968, Jessie Jackson led a protest against construction companies, trying to force them to hire African American workers. Jackson and his group were arrested for picketing outside one of the constructions sites. When Jackson was about to be released he collapsed and was rushed to the hospital. Jackson was suffering from Mononucleosis, but as his blood was tested, doctors discovered that Jackson was carrying the sickle cell trait.
During the seventies the federal government finally acknowledged sickle cell disease as a serious illness that need attention. Before sickle cell was known about it was referred to a black...
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