Mom of sickle cell patient strives, strides for disease
Starts foundation, stages walk to raise awareness
When Gina Glass, 31 and pregnant with her second child, walked into a routine prenatal appointment, sickle cell disease wasn’t on her mind.
Even when a blood test confirmed both Glass and her partner carried the trait in their genes, meaning there was a 25 percent chance their unborn daughter would live with the disease, she wasn’t too concerned, since the odds were in her favor.
“I didn’t feel like it was a big enough risk,” said Glass, now 35 and the proud mom to 3-year-old Gia Adams, a shy,
GLASS
healthy-looking girl suffering from sickle cell disease.
Glass now realizes the possibility that her daughter would be afflicted by the genetic disease should have been in the front of her mind and wants to ensure that it is for other parents-to-be in the Las Vegas Valley.
“It kind of led me to starting the foundation,” she said, referring to the Dreamsickle Kids Foundation she founded in April.
The nonprofit aimed at increasing awareness of sickle cell disease and helping parents of children living with it connect to resources will host its first public event on Saturday, a walk at Lorenzi Park in partnership with the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation.
Sickle cell disease causes red blood cells to become elongated in a bananalike shape and harden, creating blockages in small vessels that can cause extreme pain, said
Dr. Nik Abdul-rashid, director of the sickle cell disease program at Cure 4 the Kids Foundation and Gia Adams’ hematologist.
One of its main effects are called pain crises, which can only be subdued through painkillers, fluids or blood transfusions in severe cases, Abdul-rashid said. Other potential complications from the disease include anemia, infections such as pneumonia, vision loss, stroke and other organ damage, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The disease affects about 100,000 Americans, including 1 in every 365 African-american births, according to the CDC, most often affecting those with sub-saharan African ancestry.
In the last four years, 60 babies were born in Nevada with the disease, Abdul-rashid said. Testing is mandatory in newborns as part of the newborn screening panel.
Stem cell therapy could cure sickle cell disease, she said, but the treatment is still in the experimental stages.
“I think the most important thing we’re lacking here in the state is awareness and education, even in just the general population, and also within our health care providers,” Abdul-rashid said. “It’s not a common condition.”
Coming from Orange County, California, Glass said she felt the dearth in resources. While the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation provides connections to support services for parents raising a child with sickle cell disease, Glass said she’s had trouble connecting with other parents and finding resources, especially in an emergency.
When Gia came down with pneumonia in 2016, Glass, who lives near Henderson, searched the internet for valley hospitals near higher concentrations of black residents in hopes the doctors there would know how to treat a patient with sickle cell disease. She ended up taking her daughter to University Medical Center near downtown Las Vegas.
As patients get older, Abdul-rashid said, barriers to accessing care persist. She often hears stories of young black men who show up to the emergency room seeking a dose of an opioid prescription they know will ease the pain only to be sent away without the help they need.
“Instead of accepting that this patient knows his disease and knows what he needs, instead of helping them, they label them as drug seekers,” Abdul-rashid said. “It’s unfortunate.”