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Rebecca Akpeloo: PE as an Overlooked Threat in Sickle Cell Disease
Rebecca Akpeloo/LinkedIn
Oct 8, 2026, 14:10

Rebecca Akpeloo: PE as an Overlooked Threat in Sickle Cell Disease

Rebecca Akpeloo, Medical Student, Event Planner at NextGen Foundation, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“And here’s what I promised.

So, regarding a post I made about a 25-year-old sickle cell patient who presented to the hospital with his first-ever crisis, but also had three complications, I said I’d take them one after the other and break them down.

That said, today’s own is Pulmonary Embolism (PE).

What exactly is a pulmonary embolism?

Simply put, it is when a blood clot blocks a blood vessel in the lungs.

And with sickle cell disease, the blood is more prone to forming clots.

If one of these clots breaks away, travels through the bloodstream and reaches the lungs, it can cause a pulmonary embolism.

The symptoms can include:

Sudden shortness of breath, chest pain, especially when breathing deeply, a fast heartbeat, coughing, dizziness or fainting, and sometimes coughing up blood.

And the tricky part is some of these symptoms can also occur in Acute Chest Syndrome (ACS), another serious complication of sickle cell disease.

And that is exactly why I’ll be breaking down ACS in another post.

But beyond all the medical terms, what does a pulmonary embolism actually feel like?

People who have experienced it have described struggling to breathe, feeling like they simply cannot get enough air, chest pain, a racing heart and feeling faint.

One thing that stood out to me was how frightening it can be when breathing itself suddenly becomes difficult.

Because we breathe without thinking about it.

Until you can’t.

And this is one of the reasons PE is so dangerous.

It can become life-threatening very quickly.

It is also possible for a PE to present with less obvious symptoms, which is why we shouldn’t wait until someone is collapsing before we take symptoms seriously.

Routine medical care matters in sickle cell.

Remember the 25-year-old I mentioned?

He presented with three serious complications and wasn’t even aware of his sickle cell status.

It may also be happening to someone else.

So again, I say: routine medical care matters.

And caregivers, especially, should encourage and insist on regular medical care for their children—not only when they are sick, but even when they appear perfectly fine.

Looks, they say, can be deceptive.

Ever heard of pulmonary embolism?”

Rebecca Akpeloo: PE as an Overlooked Threat in Sickle Cell Disease

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ACS Acute Chest Syndrome Health Hematology Hemostasis Hemostasis News Hemostasis Today Medicine PE Pulmonary embolism Rebecca Akpeloo Sickle Cell Disease
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