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PETER
POWER /TORONTO STAR
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Four-year-old
Isaiah Adeshigbin has sickle cell disease, an
inherited blood disorder for which Ontario does
not screen newborns despite the fact early
detection and treatment can reduce mortality by
84 per cent. Three of the Adeshigbin family’s
five children have sickle cell. The eldest son,
20-year- old Abbey, suffered a stroke from the
disease at age 5.
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SICKLE CELL and
the Adeshigbin brothers
ROB FERGUSON
QUEEN'S
PARK BUREAU
TORONTO STAR, Sunday, Sept. 11, 2005
The eldest son
suffered a stroke at age 5 that cost his sight and paralyzed
his left side, leaving him in a wheelchair.
Another son has been in hospital so often he's a year behind in
high school.
The third son is just 4 years old but knows to ask for codeine to
ease the severe pain from the sickle cell disease he shares
with his older brothers.
"It's like someone's hammering nails into your body,"
says middle brother Lanre Adeshigbin, 18, a track and field
athlete despite frequent hospitalizations, the latest for
two weeks in April when his agony was eased with morphine
for a solid week.
Such is life for the Brampton family in which three of five
children have the inherited disorder that blocks the
hemoglobin in blood from carrying oxygen to fuel vital
organs and tissues.
That weakens internal organs and immune systems, leaving them
prone to infections that can quickly overwhelm the body.
Strokes happen. Sudden death can occur. The lack of oxygen
causes the debilitating pain. Even a chest cold can trigger
a crisis, perhaps a collapsed lung. There is no cure, but
prompt treatment can make a difference.
The disease primarily affects people of African descent; experts
estimate that as many as 67 black infants affected by sickle
cell disease may be born annually in Canada.
Dr. Isaac Odame, a pediatric blood specialist at McMaster Health
Centre in Hamilton, estimates that 20 to 25 babies with
sickle cell are born in Ontario every year and says the
hospital treatment they require is expensive.
Four of the five Adeshigbin children were born in their parents'
native Nigeria, where there was no newborn screening for
sickle cell.
The couple's fifth child, 4-year-old Isaiah, was born in Ontario,
where there also is no screening.
The children's father is hoping that changes soon, so children
harbouring the debilitating, lifelong disease cell can get
early treatment with penicillin, preventing or minimizing
problems like the stroke that slammed his son Abbey, now 20.
"It is extremely important to have screening," says
John Adeshigbin, a Canada Post letter carrier, recalling the
many nights he and his wife, Jumoke, have spent sitting up
with their sick children or rushing them to hospital.
A camp for children with sickle cell has been named after Jumoke.
The Canadian Task Force on Preventative Health Care recently
found that most deaths from sickle cell occur in children
between ages 1 and 3, mainly because of infection.
Just knowing infants and children have sickle cell and giving
them preventive doses of penicillin reduces deaths by 84 per
cent, according to one study quoted by the task force in a
recent report.
Every day, Lanre Adeshigbin, who had his spleen removed at age 3
because of the damage, takes penicillin, a blood pressure
drug, folic acid to keep his blood count up and hydroxyurea
pills to control his never-ending pain.
He keeps working hard at school, hoping to finish Grade 12 this
year with good enough marks to earn a scholarship for
teacher's college or a university program leading to law
school.
"The teachers know so they help me catch back up," says
Lanre, a member of the Brampton track club who specializes
in short relays and long jump.
Of older brother Abbey, he says: "His is a whole different
experience. I can't even relate to it. He just learned to
live with it."
— Rob Ferguson
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