KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — For nearly his entire life, 17-year-old Eric Macklin has lived with the most severe form of sickle cell disease.
His mother, Ereka Persley, said the diagnosis came when Eric was just three months old after newborn screening confirmed he had sickle cell disease, type SS — the most aggressive form of the inherited blood disorder.
Over the past 17 years, she said the disease has meant countless hospital stays, blood transfusions and painful crises that have shaped nearly every aspect of her son’s childhood…