Blood disorder crisis must be treated ‘as urgently as cardiac arrest’
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Blood disorder crisis must be treated ‘as urgently as cardiac arrest’

A leading nurse has urged healthcare staff to treat patients in a sickle cell crisis as seriously as if they were having a cardiac arrest

Emergency Nurse. 29, 4, 6-6. doi: 10.7748/en.29.4.6.s3

Published: 29 June 2021

Brent Sickle Cell and Thalassaemia Centre service director Lola Oni made the comment after a coroner’s finding that a man who had sickle cell disease might not have died had medical staff recognised his symptoms and given him a blood transfusion sooner.

Specialist nurse consultant Dr Oni said: ‘You’ve got to treat patients in a sickle cell crisis as if you are treating someone who is having a cardiac arrest, which means urgency.’

Evan Smith died on 25 April 2019 at North Middlesex University Hospital in London after developing sepsis following a procedure to remove a gall bladder stent a week earlier.

Staff lacked sickle cell training

In a crisis, the sickle-shaped red blood cells block small blood vessels, which can cause pain and organ damage.

Barnet Coroner’s Court heard that nursing staff at the trust did not have training in managing sickle cell disease. Since Mr Smith’s death, the trust has provided extra staff training.

Coroner Andrew Walker said that if Mr Smith had received a blood transfusion a day sooner he would not have died when he did. He concluded that while staff were providing medical care it was the ‘wrong’ care, but he did not make a finding of neglect.

Dr Oni said a change in attitude to the disease, which affects approximately 15,000 people across the UK, is paramount. ‘Sickle cell disease is a multifactorial, multisystemic condition whereby complications can arise quickly,’ she said.

Find out more about sickle cell disease at sicklecellsociety.org/about-sickle-cell

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