Sickle cell cure is real, as this Kansas patient proves

Intense pain. Fatigue. Repeated infections, emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

Desiree Ramirez endured them often — until she became the first adult cured at a Kansas hospital of sickle cell disease.

Bone marrow stem cells donated by a stranger rescued Ramirez at age 23. Now, a year past transplant, with follow-up doctor’s office visits slowly receding, she finds herself eagerly anticipating a normal life, one without the inherited blood disorder that affects 70,000 to 100,000 Americans, mostly people of African heritage.