Hope and Destiny: A Patient's and Parent's Guide to Sickle Cell Anemia by Alan Sacerdote M.D., Allen Platt, Allan F. Platt Jr. P.A.-C. M.M.Sc. and M D Sacerdote

This consumer's guide to understanding sickle cell disease, a very painful and incurable illness that primarily affects African Americans, was co-written by Platt, who works at the Georgia Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center in Atlanta, and Sacerdote, a clinical professor of medicine at the SUNY Health Science Center, Brooklyn. Written for the lay reader, the book also provides invaluable information for healthcare professionals who may have no prior experience or knowledge of sickle cell. The text covers many different aspects of the illness, from genetic counseling and the hematological explanations of sickle cell to dealing with pain episodes and emergency room visits. The three sections of the book mix medical information with personal stories and self-empowerment. Treatment options, developmental issues, and new research are also covered. Ultimately, this book achieves its aim of informing patients, their caregivers, and those who carry the sickle cell trait, so that they will "come prepared with knowledge." The text tends to repeat itself but is never condescending. Suitable for consumer health collections in both medical and public libraries. Nicole A. Cooke, Univ. of Medicine & Dentistry of New Jersey Lib., Newark
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Collaboratively written by Allan F. Platt, Jr. (Program Coordinator and Physican Assistant at the George Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center, Grady Health System, Atlanta, Georgia) and Alan Sacerdote (Chief of Adult Endocrinoloty, Woodhull Medical and Mental Health Center and Clinical Profesor of Medicine at SUNY Health Science Center, Brooklyn, New York), Hope And Destiny: A Patient's And Parent's Guide To Sickle Cell Disease And Sickle Cell Trait is a guide written especially for non-specialist general readers of all ages who must cope with sickle cell anemia, either in themselves or in their family and offspring. Individual chapters cover the causes of sickle cell disease; current tretment options; genetic counseling; age-based developmental issues; pain assessment and management; as well as new treatments and research. Hope And Destiny is confidently recommended as a solid and informational primer.