Nigerian singer Adekunle Gold has recounted experiencing a severe sickle cell crisis while travelling by air to Tanzania.
The singer, who has been open about living with the genetic blood disorder, shared the experience during an interview with the BBC.
According to Gold, he spends a significant amount of time travelling by air, but flying at high altitudes can pose risks for people living with sickle cell disease because of changes in oxygen levels.
He said the crisis occurred during a trip to Tanzania, which included a stopover in Ethiopia.
The 39-year-old artiste said he first felt a dull ache in his stomach and assumed it was food poisoning from something he had eaten at the airport.
He blamed himself for the meal, but the pain only worsened. He added that the situation grew so dire that the plane came close to making an emergency landing.
“The last major crisis that I had. This is not the one I talked about when I was 20. The last major crisis I had happened on a plane,” he said.
“I was going to Tanzania. And I was supposed to stop over in Ethiopia. I just noticed that I started feeling pain in my stomach. I was cramping. I thought it was maybe some meal that I had at the airport. I was like, ‘I shouldn’t have eaten that’.
“I was beating myself up about that, but it kept going. I went to the toilet nothing came out. They almost landed the plane because of me, because it was really bad.”
The ‘Sade’ hitmaker said upon landing in Ethiopia, he was unable to walk and had to be taken to a hospital in a wheelchair.
According to him, doctors confirmed he was experiencing a crisis but it was a type he had never encountered before. Until then, the only sickle cell crises he knew affected the joints; he had never heard of one attacking the stomach.
He added that the doctor advised him to stay well hydrated on flights.
“Thankfully, we were closer to landing in Ethiopia. I could not even walk. For the first time in my life, they had to put me in a wheelchair, and they took me to the hospital. And the doctor told me that I had a crisis,” he said.
“The only crisis I have known in my life is your joints. That was the first time I ever heard about that. The doctor now told me that when I am on the plane, I should make sure I drink a lot of water. And that my oxygen level was low because I did not drink a lot of water that day.”
