Who is angella ferguson

African American African-American black. Hematologic disease Anemia Sickle cell trait Hemoglobin Vaso-occlusive crisis. Army Reserve U.

Army Reserve Organized Reserve. Though her father was a high school teacher, had his own architectural firm, and was a U. Army reservist, the family struggled financially, especially during the Great Depression. Depression The Great Depression Depression era. Angella became interested in chemistry and mathematics while attending Cardoza High School, which she graduated in In , she was promoted to associate vice president for health affairs, a post she held until her retirement in Ferguson married Dr.

Charles M. Cabaniss and has two daughters together. The American Medical Association has provided Ferguson with two certificates of merit for her work with sickle cell anemia.

Skip to content Dr. Angella Dorothea Ferguson. Do you find this information helpful? A small donation would help us keep this accessible to all. Forego a bottle of soda and donate its cost to us for the information you just learned, and feel good about helping to make it available to everyone! Although Ferguson really enjoyed mathematics and chemistry, she started focusing more on biology by the second year of college.

Wanting to be both a physician and researcher, she started thinking about going to medical school. In medical school, she majored in pediatrics, which involves the treatment of infants and young children. The research that had been developed was research for children with a European background, not of African American children.

She was collecting data to show a correlation of height and weight with the size of the child at each age level. While studying the reports, she discovered tha t a huge handful of black children suffered from sickle-cell anemia , a genetic and painful disease that causes red blood cells to function improperly. Healthy red blood cells are doughnut-shaped, and sickle cells are crescent shaped, which slows down the flow of blood in veins and arteries.

Sickle Cell disease affects mostly people of African and Mediterranean descent. She decided to change gears and delve further into sickle cell research; this was inventive because, during that time, sickle-cell anemia was a little-known disease. She was one of the first medical researchers to study sickle cell. She discovered the various symptoms of sickle cell in children up to age 12 resemble more familiar symptoms.

The symptoms for infants resemble those of arthritis, the symptoms for ages of 2 through 6 resembles someone who lacking certain vitamins in their diet. Ages 6 through 12, for the most part, show little to no symptoms. After the age of 12, the sickle cell has a chance of returning and if it does, it would most likely come in the form of skin ulcers. Ferguson industrialized a blood test to detect sickle cell at birth, which has become the standard test in forty U.

Because of her research, there is more knowledge on how to treat sickle cell patients more effectively. Ferguson set the guidelines on how to diagnose and treat sickle cell for others to follow in her footsteps and further her research. Her groundbreaking research contributed to a greater understanding of sickle cell anemia. Ferguson married Dr. Charles M. Cabaniss and has two daughters together. She received the certificate of merit twice for her work with sickle cell anemia from the American Medical Association.

Her service in the medical field of pediatrics extended more than 45 years. Wikimedia Foundation, n. Carey, Charles W. African Americans in Science. Ebony Jr. Google Books. Spangenburg, Ray, and Kit Moser.