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Palo Alto
Mary E. Brown is president and CEO of the Sickle Cell Disease Foundation
As a teenager Rialton Reid was rushed to a Los Angeles emergency room in excruciating pain. Not only was he battling a sickle cell crisis; he was fighting a system unprepared to care for him.
The doctors at the time questioned his pain. Nurses misread his symptoms. And his family watched helplessly as he fought for treatment while just trying to survive.
Since then health providers’ understanding of sickle cell has improved, changing everything. Now Reid, 27, helps other families of sickle cell patients navigate health care in Los Angeles County.
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