Hemophilia
Hemophilia is usually an inherited disorder that is passed through genes or a gene disfunction. It is a disorder in which one of the proteins needed to form blood clots are missing or reduced. There are three types of hemophilia; type A, type B and type C. The most common type of hemophilia is type A, also known as a factor VIII deficient. A person that is injured and has hemophilia will not bleed harder or faster they will bleed for a longer time, if the bleeding is not stopped then causing a hemorrhage the person can bleed out and die. Thankfully treatment exists which is called replacement treatment, where factor VIII for type A or factor IX for type B are injected into a vein. These injections replace or increase the missing or low factors.
Hector is a hemophiliac type A, deficient of factor VIII, he inherited this disease from his mom's side. He is 18 years old, only about 2 years younger than me. I remember growing up with him, but leaving him behind or left out on games. His parents didn't let him play with the rest of the cousins because of the fear of their son getting hurt. Hector would always wear knee and elbow pads, that way if he fell there would be less chance of getting severe cuts. As he grew older he stopped using the pads, by then he knew better, understood his disease and his responsibility of trying to have a normal life. I asked him an obvious question for this project, which was "Do you like having hemophilia?" and as expected he responded with "No one likes to be sick". Growing up Hector had to go to the doctor from twice to three times a week, the nurses would then inject him with factor VIII. Now that he is older he does it himself from two to three times a week and/or if he cuts himself or feels pain he has to inject it too. He has had 3 surgeries so far, one in Mexico and the other two at the University of Arizona Medical Center (UAMC). Those three surgeries were crucial to his health, thanks to advanced science he got out of the three alive. He had to have surgery because there was damaged to his joints caused by delays in treatment. Based of that, he uses crutches all the time, it has been years of him using crutches. He is just like everyone else just that he has to be more careful, he drives, goes to school etc. Maybe he cannot run, play baseball or any other sports because he can't really run anymore. Even when he was little I don't remember him running. My nana would always care so much about him, he was like a saint to my nana, no one could touch him. Maybe because our parents and/or family was not used to this disease they treated him with so much care, that we, or I should say was scared of even talking to him because I didn't want to hurt him in anyway, I didn't want to ask anything about his disease. Until recently I have been more open with him. He has a younger sister, has the recessive trait of hemophilia because she is female and is in her ancestors, so if she has a baby boy the boy will most likely have hemophilia. My cousin and aunts have to live with Hemophilia for the rest of their lives. It is not something easy to live with, the same with any other disease, there is a lot of money that has to be spent or invested in the affected one to keep them alive, because more than anything they are part of our happiness, specially their parents happiness.
Cites:
"Hemophilia A (Factor VIII Deficiency)." National Hemophilia Foundation, 2006. Web. 08 Jan. 2014. http://www.hemophilia.org/NHFWeb/MainPgs/MainNHF.aspx?menuid=180&contentid=45&rptname=bleeding
"Hemophilia A (Factor VIII Deficiency)." National Hemophilia Foundation, 2006. Web. 08 Jan. 2014. http://www.hemophilia.org/NHFWeb/MainPgs/MainNHF.aspx?menuid=180&contentid=45&rptname=bleeding