Ashata Onikoyi-Laguda, Nigeria oldest sickle cell patient, dies at 95
Ashata Onikoyi- Laguda, the oldest sickle cell patient in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa, passed on in the wee hours of Saturday, at age 95.
Sickle cell disorder (SCD) is an inherited abnormal haemoglobin (blood) disease that causes severe pains, organ damage and early death.
Onikoyi- Laguda , who lived in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial hub, was among the rare patients that lived with sickle cell disorder.
She was born on the 1st of November 1925, and had also become one of the last known survivors of the disorder.
Her family is from the royal family of the Onikoyi’s of Lagos Island, Lagos state.
In an interview with ANTHONIA OBOKOH, recently, she called sickle cell disease “God’s work”.