The medical shows on television go a long way into making their facts more suitable and entertaining to the viewers. In an episode of House M.D, there is a 14year old white female who is quite active in sports with a brother suffering from severe congenital muscular dystrophy. In a charity event, she passes out and is diagnosed to have had a heart arrhythmia. While in hospital, the doctors discovered that she had a kidney failure, soon after she was drowning in her blood as her lung was bleeding. In the operating room, they sutured her up, but this did not take. She needed a lung transplant that she immediately got from the transplant allocation committee. Her body later seemed to either have a lung infection or would be rejecting the lung, a course of antibiotics and steroids was administered but it seemed neither the two was the issue.
The doctor finally went to see her after her family revealed that she had not been ill for a while. This later revealed that the girl had sickle cell trait and had been concealing symptoms such as ear aches and chest congestion. Her symptoms and her reaction to the medication that had been administered is what got the final diagnosis. She would therefore need another lung from someone with the same condition and a bone marrow.
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Sickle cell disease is a monogenic disorder with higher occurrence in African Americans. This is particularly because the prevalence of the disease is throughout sub-Saharan Africa, Mediterranean basin, Middle East and India due to the level of protection the sickle cell trait provides against severe malaria (Piel, Steinberg, & Rees, 2017). This being the issue, the show portrays a young white female whose parents did not know that one was a carrier of the sickle cell thus transferred the trait to their daughter. It was not the first diagnosis because she was not the typical patient for the disease especially because she hid her symptoms till the last minute.
It is also a general ideology that people with sickle cell trait lead a life free of medical problems. Most people do not show symptoms except when under extreme conditions such as high altitude, a high level of dehydration or vigorous physical activity. In these conditions, the red blood cells become sickled. In the show, it starts off with the patient skateboarding for a fundraiser which is an intense physical activity that causes her to pass out. A year before, she started experiencing low-level cold symptoms when at a tournament in Denver. Denver is considered an area with relatively high altitude. She had also been on an IV for hours but did not have the urge to urinate which stresses that her body had been dehydrated. In this case, medicine on television had accurately diagnosed the disease at hand with the symptoms that related to it.
The need for a lung transplant in the country today is based on the accessibility of the organ, the wait list for the organ or if an immediate family member offers the organ. For one to qualify, there is an evaluation process by the medical team to understand the severity of the condition. When one is accepted, they are registered on the national organ transplant waiting list. This begins the period of organizing your support and financial system as you wait according to your rank on the list. The contrast seen was that the lung transplant was immediate in the episode. This means that they had checked compatibility and found an immediate lung that was available which cannot be quite the case.
The sickle cell trait is quite common in certain ethnic groups with the majority being African Americans. Other groups susceptible to this disease are the Hispanics, south Asians, Caucasians originating from southern Europe and people from Middle Eastern countries. At the moment, all newborns in the country are tested for sickle cell disease and trait. The disease can also be identified before birth by a simple amniotic fluid test. This is a very standard procedure that parents who carry the gene undergo during pregnancy. The condition, from the episode, shocked the parents and the patient which begs the question if they had the knowledge that one of the parent was a carrier or if the child is a carrier?
The treatment regime that is needed for sickle cell disease include bone marrow transplant that involves replacing affected marrow with a healthy one from a donor, such as a sibling. The procedure is usually recommended for children under 16 who have significant symptoms due to the associated risk. If a donor is available, the person receives radiation or chemotherapy to destroy the bone marrow stem cells. The stem cells from the donor are intravenously injected into the bloodstream of the ill person from where they travel into the bone marrow. On their arrival, they begin the process of blood formation. The whole procedure requires a long hospital stay. After the transplant, one receives drugs so as to help prevent rejection of the cells.
The episode from House M.D showed a clear picture of the consequences of ignorance towards the condition, sickle cell trait. Currently, it is approximated that 100 million people in the world have the trait. It is more dominant in a few groups but can also affect anyone. It spread awareness of the condition to enable more people to go for screening. The accuracy of the episode as compared to real life can be estimated to be about 90%. The consequences of taking advantage of the presence of the condition can lead to death. When the complications arising from this condition occur, the medical implication is large as it changes a person’s life drastically and leads to a heavy financial burden when dealing with hospital bills. It is quite unfortunate if one is not insured when the complications occur due to the lengthy procedures involved and the hospital stay.
Sickle cell trait is a manageable condition that can allow a person to lead a normal life when they consider the risks that can trigger associated diseases. The episode might not have been thorough in portraying the whole procedure to compare how the healthcare system works, but it provided awareness. Its viewers had a chance to see the complications associated though in a rather rushed sense without the financial implications. Another ideology that a viewer can get from this is the idea that they can self-diagnose from their symptoms. The portrayal of the real-life healthcare system was evaded to include entertainment to entice its audience more.
References
Ferris, K., & Stein, J. (2014). The Real World: An Introduction to Sociology.
Mitchell, B. L. (n.d.). Sickle cell trait and sudden death. Florida.
Piel, F., Steinberg, M., & Rees, D. (2017). Sickle cell Disease. New England Journal of Medicine .
Sickle cell trait. (2017). Retrieved from America Society of Hematology: http://www.hematology.org/Patients/Anemia/Sickle-Cell-Trait.aspx
staff, M. c. (n.d.). Sickle cell Anemia. Retrieved from Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sickle-cell-anemia/diagnosis-treatment/treatment/txc-20303509
The National Waiting List. (2017). Retrieved from UNOS transplant living: https://transplantliving.org/before-the-transplant/getting-on-the-list/the-national-waiting-list/
