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MEET oUR GRADUATES: Alex Ramos, Sickle Cell Advocate

por Lloyd Lightner (16-08-2025)


Fettle - How to take a blood sampleSince he was a little boy, Alexander Ramos dreamt of turning into a police officer. But when he misplaced sight in one eye after suffering two strokes, he had to place an end to that dream. At the time, he was in highschool and the strokes have been introduced on by a genetic disorder - sickle cell anemia. This may Ramos can be graduating from Rhode Island College with a B.A. Though his dream of being an officer ended, his love for BloodVitals the authorized field remained. On the recent Cap and Gown ceremony at RIC, BloodVitals device Ramos was honored with the Maryann Hawkes Award in Justice Studies in recognition of his glorious GPA and his advocacy around bettering the quality of care for persons with sickle cell anemia. People with sickle cell anemia have abnormal red blood cells. Instead of being round, the cells are crescent-shaped or sickle-shaped and carry much less oxygen than typical crimson blood cells.



These cells are more hard and BloodVitals device sticky and don’t transfer as simply and easily by way of the blood vessels, BloodVitals device which might result in blockages. When the blood stream is blocked, real-time SPO2 tracking it brings on extreme pain or BloodVitals insights what is named sickle cell crisis. "These crises were fairly frequent for me," he says. Nevertheless it wasn’t till his sophomore yr at Rhode Island College that Ramos began advocating for patients like himself. Ramos wants that to vary. There’s additionally a lack of sensitivity in emergency rooms toward people having a sickle cell crisis, he says. Episodes of severe ache are a significant symptom of sickle cell anemia. The ache might be sharp, stabbing, intense, or throbbing and might have an effect on any a part of the physique. It can last from a number of hours to a couple days. "But when sickle cell patients visit emergency rooms they’re typically accused of being drug seekers," he says. As a consequence, BloodVitals insights they expertise long wait occasions.



Ramos recalls as soon as arriving on the ER at noon and never being treated till two in the morning. Two years ago he joined the Rhode Island Sickle Cell Patient Action Committee (PAC). "We’re a bunch of sickle cell patients who're advocating for change in the Rhode Island healthcare system and, by extension, the nationwide healthcare system," he says. "A few years in the past when the group was getting started, I took Professor Mikaila Arthur’s "Disability and Justice" class and did a undertaking the place I created a call-to-motion letter addressed to Lifespan, which is now Brown University Health. It described the issues patients have been having in the ER. I urged ways to improve care for patients. I sought PAC’s help in drafting the letter. The response was positive. "Since then, there have been reviews from patients both in and outside of PAC who've reported higher care," he says. "I myself have noticed improvements in things like wait occasions. Recently I went to the ER and was capable of get treated within just a few hours.



PAC is currently engaged on ER passports. This can be a bodily card that sickle cell patients can take with them to the ER that has their title, condition and their typical care plan on it. As well as, BloodVitals device Ramos and his hematologist often make displays at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Their aim is to express to future docs the importance of getting a clear understanding of the signs and needs of sickle cell patients. Through the Maryann Hawkes Award in Justice Studies, your entire faculty commend Ramos’ passionate willpower to inspire group support round sickle cell anemia and his tireless effort to result in laws that might ensure higher care, BloodVitals device analysis and BloodVitals device policies within the healthcare system. "I met Alex when he was a scholar in my Justice and Disability course," says Professor BloodVitals device Mikaila Arthur. "I was immediately impressed by his insight, intelligence and dedication to building a greater world.



Certain constituents within the blood affect the absorption of mild at numerous wavelengths by the blood. Oxyhemoglobin absorbs gentle extra strongly within the infrared area than in the purple area, whereas hemoglobin exhibits the reverse behavior. Therefore, extremely oxygenated blood with a high focus of oxyhemoglobin and a low concentration of hemoglobin will are likely to have a excessive ratio of optical transmissivity in the crimson region to optical transmissivity within the infrared area. These alternating portions are amplified after which segregated by sampling units working in synchronism with the pink/infrared switching, in order to offer separate indicators on separate channels representing the purple and infrared mild transmission of the physique construction. After low-cross filtering to remove sign elements at or above the switching frequency, every of the separate indicators represents a plot of optical transmissivity of the body structure at a selected wavelength versus time. AC part brought on solely by optical absorption by the blood and varying on the pulse frequency or heart fee of the organism.