‘How I survived sickle cell anaemia’

Alhaja Ashiata Onikoyi Laguda is one of those people born in a period when survival rate for children that had sickle cell anaemia (HbSS) was virtually zero. She was born in 1927, thus she will be 85 years old this year, making her the oldest person living with HbSS. And despite her old age and condition combined, she is still so strong that she walks about, climbs up and down the stairs to her first floor residence, lives alone, etc.

Even though most people who have HbSS are unable to do strenuous jobs, Laguda worked for the army in the secretarial department and also involved herself in trading, a business which comes with a lot of mental and physical stress. That she is still alive today is an amazing feat.  It was therefore important to meet with her to find out how she survived in a period that she should have been consumed.

“Prior to my birth,” she disclosed, “my mother had had only one child who died soon afterwards. Before she could have me, it took her six and a half years after her first child’s death. She also told me that I was three years old when they first began to notice something different about me. The first sign was measles followed by constantly being sick every time.”

Probably considering her long wait to have Ashiata (and the two other children she would eventually have), her mother wasn’t ready to see her consistent sickness as a burden but a challenge. Resolutely, she set out to make sure that Ashiata’s health status wouldn’t lead to the loss of her life.

“My mother travelled all over Nigeria, to the East, the North, anywhere, just to seek traditional medication to cure my condition or make it better. I drank a lot of herbal concoctions and ate a lot of agunmu. There were some concoctions that I would drink in just one week. There were some concoctions prepared for me that I could drink only from the bones of a certain bird,” recalls Laguda. “There were also tribal marks etched into my body. They are just fading now.”

Even as it seems it’s easy for her to talk about her condition, she admits that she didn’t think she would survive this far. “I never knew I could finish my studies at Queen’s School. Then, it was compulsory for all of us to swim, but I couldn’t of course, because of the cold water.

“There were many times I would query God that if He wanted me to die, why did He bring me into the world? These were during times that if I had pain in my hands, I wouldn’t be able to eat as I couldn’t use the hands. And if I had pain in my legs, I wouldn’t be able to walk.”

But she survived all the crises, and she attributes her survival to the same God she sometimes doubted, not the traditional methods her mother employed. “I believe I survived because I pray a lot. At that time I was born, the sickle cell mortality rate was very high, unlike now that it’s much, much better, so my survival is just God.”

In 1960, she went to England. Her mother was unwilling to let her go and she wasn’t short of supporters. “The people around my mother told her that it’s very cold in England so it was better I didn’t go for my own good. The only way I was able to convince my mother was that the God we have in Nigeria is the same one in England so He would take care of me.”

She tells how she survives in England. “Well, they have better arrangements. Each person has access to a doctor and if you can’t go to the hospital, you will phone and the doctor will come to you at home. The British government was even begging me to be giving me financial assistance.  But I refused it. I didn’t want to tarnish my name; that I came to England from Nigeria to beg for money.”

Her mother’s worst fears almost became a reality while she was in England that first visit which lasted four years for the secretarial course she went to take. “During winter one year, I fell in the snow. I was even pregnant then and a lot of people came to my aid. Luckily, it wasn’t a severe fall. They made me sit down, take deep breaths and I was okay.”

Laguda has five children and several grandchildren. Her pregnancies posed some complications. “I never had problems during my pregnancies. It was always during deliveries that I did. Blood might be gushing after delivery or I might be unconscious for two to three days. I remember that when I delivered in London, my last child, I was losing blood and was afraid I would die. But they are wonderful people over there. The doctors told me the quantity of blood I was losing and how they were replacing it so I was rest assured.”

She not only survived HbSS, she has learnt a lot about it in the process and has sound advice for other carriers and their parents or guardians.

“Parents should take care of their SS children with all their heart. Make them warm during cold periods. Do not let them walk barefoot. Make sure they drink a lot of milk for their bones. Eat well and be prayerful. Exercise is very important. Like me now, I cannot do much exercise, but on my bed, I stretch my hands and I walk a lot. Exercise helps.”