Leaderboard

I hope you can clarify some stories I have heard. We live at 3600' elevation with a lovely ski hill that is around 8000' (see my profile photo). We have had people come here to ski and be surprised at having sickle problems (I assume sickle crisis). Does this mean these are all homozygous HbS people who just don't have much trouble at lower elevations? I also heard a story from Sarah Ilstrup(sp) that a group of young black professionals took a ski vacation to her Utah mountains and many of them were surprised by developing sickle symptoms. We have little experience here with sickle disease because those with overt disease usually don't live at this elevation. I would love education on the genetics and Hbs percentaage status of these patients if you would care to speculate. We also get HbS negative units in for neonatal exchanges. Is that more necessary here than at sea level?