DOZ Issue 43 May 2019 - Page 15

had sickle cell anaemia no doubt must have been very devastating for you. Did the doctors at that point offer any hope for a lasting treatment? When and how did you first discover that Amanosi had the sickle cell disease? When Amanosi was about three weeks old, there’s the genetic screening for newborns that they usually do in the hospital, so it was discovered that she had sickle cell anaemia and when they contacted us, they had to do a second test to confirm the result. And as we know, sickle cell disease does not just come from the baby both parents must have it; that is why it is an inherited blood disorder. Most definitely, we were devastated as parents, but the devastation shifted to swift thinking that we believed that God is in control and He will take care of things moving forward. And that was what happened. The doctors did discuss with us the risks that were involved in the child having a sickle cell at that age. But for treatment, the immediate treatment for an infant will be to put her on a prophylactic antibiotic, which was penicillin, and she took that from about three months until she was about five years old. But she is the only one of your children that has it? Yes, she is the one that has the anaemia, the other two children are carriers, which is also known as a trait. So how did the idea come about to use her brother’s bone marrow to treat her? So, learning that your three-week-old baby Okay, so for many years we were going to the 15 DOZ Magazine | May 2019