Hello,
My mom got a phone call from my uncle yesterday that my aunt is in the Intensive Care Unit. She collapsed/passed out yesterday while working in her garden. My uncle thought it was just from being in the heat, but when she got her conciousness back, she couldn't speak so he rushed her to the hospital which is like 2 minutes away from their house.

I'm not totally sure what is wrong with her, but from my understanding her body is destroying her red blood cells or something like that. My uncle was trying to explain it to my mom, but was having a hard time. My aunt hadn't had any recent infections or sicknesses, she's only felt a little tired the past few days. The doctors aren't sure what is wrong with her - they aren't sure if she has an infection or cancer or what. Right now, her blood is being directed from her body through a machine to make it better again and back into her body. Since they've been doing this she has been feeling better, and the hospital is going to continue this for another 5 days and see what happens.

I know my grandpa died of blood cancer, but his doctors always told him that his cancer was from high radiation from his job.

I was just hoping that someone could give us some insight as to what may be going on. If I can get more details as to what is wrong I will post it. Thanks in advance for any insight or ideas anyone may have to offer!

:: UPDATE ::

My mom just called my uncle, he said that my aunt is doing better than yesterday. The docs say that her body isn't destroying any more of the red blood cells, but aren't sure if that's because of the machine or if she is actually getting better. They still don't know what has caused this and they're running lots of blood tests.

Once again, any insight would be extremely helpful! Thanks!!!

Look in to Autoimmune Hemolytic anemia...its when your body creates antibodies that attack your red blood cells. Are they putting her on Prednisone because that is a very common drug to be put on when you have it? When I was first DX in Nov...I was VERY Sick and it took a long time for them to figure out what I had...5 days!! There are many threads about this just page down to the 12th thread on this page and you will find one a lot about it.

Good Luck!!

Well, my aunt is still in the hospital, out of the ICU. She was transported to a hospital that is a part of a medical school, so they are able to treat her better. The doctors are thinking it is some sort of anemia - possibly what you mentioned, but still aren't 100% sure. The thing that has the docs baffled is within the past week, since all this has been going on, my aunt has developed a spot on her brain, so they are tracking that. Before the spot developed, she was cognitively OK, now she doesn't know anyone, and can't motor plan...according to her husband...she's like a child. I'm thinking of asking my uncle if the docs have run any genetic testing...I was doing some research because the docs have been mentioning stuff about PPP and plasma. From looking on the internet, I found PPP to mean Platelet-poor plasma, which led me to a thing called Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency or G6PD deficiency. According to what I found, it "is an inheritable, x-linked recessive disorder whose primary effect is the reduction of the enzyme G-6-PD in red blood cells, causing destruction of the cells, called hemolysis. Ultimately, this hemolysis leads to anemia - either acute hemolytic or a chronic sperocytic type." On the paper that I printed about it, it says it's more predominate in blacks, but there is a variant of this gene that affects those of mediterranean descent. My grandpa was from Serbia and had blood problems, so it kind of makes you wonder...Especially since it's an X chromosome, that means it would come from my grandpa, right? Since x is male and y is female...I think.


I'm really not sure what the have my aunt on to be honest. My uncle's first language is spanish, so he really isn't clear on all of this medical lingo. I know that they do have her slightly sedated, and they have some sort of medication going through a tube in her arm leading to her heart, and they've been doing transfusions or something like that. She's been in the hospital for a good week and a half, she was actually admitted to the hospital on the 12th, and it's now the 24th.