(NAPSI)—What seemed like an ordinary morning for four-year-old Kelly Bernard Igwe became life-altering. She woke up with her left arm completely numb, as if she had slept on it wrong. But this was not the temporary tingling that comes from an awkward sleeping position.

Her mother noticed something was different. Bernard Igwe was pulling up her clothing with only one arm, and she developed what her mother initially thought was an adorable, crooked smile. When Bernard Igwe began walking with a limp that persisted for days, her mother knew something was seriously wrong. The diagnosis revealed that Bernard Igwe, who was born with sickle cell disease, had suffered a stroke.

A Silent Crisis

Around 10% of children with sickle cell disease—the most common inherited blood disorder in the U.S.—ex

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