Sam’s Road Leads to Quality of Life
The journey for Sam is a long one- over three hundred miles round-trip. But he makes the trip again and again. That’s because every six weeks Sam leaves his home in Vancouver, B.C., for Seattle and treatment of sickle cell anemia.

An inherited blood disorder, sickle cell is characterized by defective hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying blood component. The result is deformed red cells; instead of being soft, flexible and circular like normal red cells, they are rigid, fragile and curved like a crescent moon, which makes them clump together and clog blood vessels to deprive organs and tissue of oxygen . Pain and serous medical problems follow.

But why Seattle? Because in North America, sickle cell is primarily a disease of people with African ancestry, like Sam’s.

“There’s a very small black population in Vancouver. As a result, there wasn’t a lot of knowledge about sickle cell,” Sam, 18, explains. So, when medications failed, he looked for a new approach. “In Seattle, I found a real understanding of the disease and how to treat it.”

At Puget Sound Blood Center, a transfusion replaces some of Sam’s defective cells with normal cells. It’s called a red cell exchange. And it makes a difference.

“My quality of life has increased – it’s worth the drive,” he says. His mother, a physician, agrees.

Editor’s Note: Since the publication of this article, treatment for sickle cell became available for Sam in Canada and he no longer makes regular trips to Seattle for treatment.