My journey with sickle cell disease began when I was just three months old. As the child of Ghanaian immigrants seeking better healthcare in Canada, I grew up in and out of hospitals, continuously battling the challenges of my condition.
On March 4, 2019, I faced one of the most severe crises of my life. The familiar tightness in my chest and stabbing pains in my legs signaled a dire situation. Rushing to the hospital, I found myself in the ICU, fighting for each breath. It was a critical moment that led to an induced coma and a transfer to Toronto General Hospital, where I underwent treatments like dialysis and plasmapheresis for multi-system failure, pulmonary embolism, and a large mass in my cecum. I woke up three weeks later from the coma and spent my 29th birthday in the hospital, recovering from the most life-threatening crisis I had ever had.