For years, sickle cell disease made life a struggle for Jack Butler, forcing him to retire early and keeping him from fully enjoying his young family.
Regional One Health’s Ugochi Ogu, MD and the Diggs Kraus Sickle Cell Clinic helped change all that.
By providing Jack with expert care, Dr. Ogu helped him significantly reduce pain crisis events and get back to his work and family.
Whether he’s creating new recipes for his catering company, cheering at his kids’ games, or playing villain to his 7-year-old’s superhero, Jack Butler is grateful to feel good enough to enjoy his busy, active life.
It wasn’t always that way.
Ugochi Ogu, MD, is medical director of the Diggs Kraus Sickle Cell Clinic. She helps patients avoid pain crisis and lead longer, healthier lives.
Jack was born with sickle cell disease, an inherited condition in which red blood cells are shaped like crescents or sickles due to a genetic mutation. These cells can get stuck in blood vessels, making it harder for oxygen-rich blood to reach tissues and organs.
That can cause pain crisis events that require hospitalization, and patients are at higher risk for anemia, infections, spleen damage, sickle cell pneumonia (acute chest syndrome), and stroke.
Jack had struggled with pain crises all his life.
“From childhood to adulthood, I was rarely ever treated for my sickle cell disease,” he said. “I was going through continuous crisis. All the time. I had to be admitted to the hospital, and I was in serious pain every day – backbreaking pain. I ended up having a sickle cell crisis in my spine, and that almost crippled me.”
That started to change when Jack was referred to hematologist Ugochi Ogu, MD, the medical director of Regional One Health’s Diggs Kraus Sickle Cell Clinic.
The Diggs Kraus Sickle Cell Clinic is one of the oldest facilities in the country dedicated to the treatment of sickle cell disease. Led by Dr. Ogu, a multidisciplinary team offers preventive and maintenance care, health and nutritional education, and the latest treatment options including blood transfusion, infusion therapies and referrals for bone marrow transplant and gene therapy.
Their goal is to help patients avoid pain crisis and lead longer, healthier lives.
Dr. Ogu’s care allowed Jack to get back to the catering company he built. Prior to receiving care, he had been forced to retire early.
For Jack, it was lifechanging.
Dr. Ogu prescribed hydroxyurea, a medication that improves blood cell flexibility, along with high-dose Vitamin D and folic acid. She also helped him make dietary changes, like eliminating red meat and increasing fruits and vegetables.
“When I started being treated at Regional One Health, a lot of my symptoms started to go away,” Jack said. “I used to have major pain crises a couple times a year, and I would end up in the hospital for multiple days. Thankfully and prayerfully, I have not had an admission to the hospital in five or six years.”
When Jack, now 43, first started seeing Dr. Ogu, he had been forced into retirement. Along with the pain events, the disease had caused him to go blind in both eyes.
He was also reeling from a near-death experience.
Jack had developed Legionnaire’s disease after being exposed to contaminated water, and was hospitalized with pneumonia and organ failure. “They didn’t expect me to live, but Dr. Ogu and Regional One Health were able to pretty much bring me back from the dead,” he said.
Spending time with family is one of Jack’s favorite things to do. “I’m able to do a lot of things I was not able to do due to the illness,” he said. “Now, I’m active with my children and my wife. Life is a blessing.”
“I had several blood transfusions. I received medications, hydration, and things of that nature. Dr. Ogu told me to start eating certain vegetables and fruits to try to heal my body.”
As he continued seeing Dr. Ogu, he started to regain his health and reduce pain crises. Surgery and treatment restored vision to his right eye, and he regained partial sight in his left eye.
Now, “I’m able to do a lot of things I was not able to do due to the illness. I have my own catering company, and I have a couple of people under me that help me run it. I’m active with my children and my wife. Life is a blessing.”
His children, ages 14, 12, and 7, keep him busy with their sports and band events. “My 7-year-old is pretty much into every superhero you can name,” Jack laughed. “I’m either running around as the super villain or another superhero.”
He is grateful to Dr. Ogu and the Diggs Kraus Sickle Cell Clinic team for their role in that.
“Dr. Ogu is my angel on earth. I give her all the credit,” he said. “She gives her patients insight and education so they can take care of themselves, and she truly cares about her patients.”