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White Blood Cell Count Zero

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posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 02:12 AM
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I was talking to my sister today and she mentioned this story about someones friend. The friend was playing field hockey (a girl) and afterwards she fell ill so they went to the doctor. The doctor sent her home after doing some tests and the next day she was still ill so they went back. He did some more tests and sent her home again. The doctor called back that night and told them to bring her to the hospital right away as they discovered something serious. The girl died while driving to the hospital. They found out that her white blood cell count was zero. I first thought of aids but she is a young girl and i don't think she had aids. What else can kill white blood cells? I searched on google but i couldn't find anything, hopefully i'll find out what the cause was in a few days. Anyone here who knows what could have happened?



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 03:58 AM
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I'm not saying she was HIV +ve, but it has no respect for age, most of the people dying in Africa are under 30.

HIV doesn't kill you directly, it destroys your immune system to such an extent that your body can no longer defend itself from infection (this is when you woud be classified as AIDS). Long before your "white blood count" reached zero (it takes years) you would be already suffering from multiple, usually very nasty, diseases. You don't just suddenly become ill and drop dead within the space of a few hours.

You should probably try and make sure you have your facts straight, as it sounds like a "friend of a friend" type story that might have changed quite considerbly from the original truth.



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 04:06 AM
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she may have been a carrier of the virus and sometimes the virus then devolopes in to aids. some people can carry the virus all their lives and pass it on to people, yet never have it develope in to aids. could it also be any sort of certain diet that over time made her white blood cells crash?

did the doctors ever say what they thought it was?


xu

posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 04:29 AM
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radiation can be the cause of lowering white blood cells. and in your case, it is a sudden decrease because if it was decreased smoothly then some other illnesses would show up way before her death. so she was possibly exposed to radiation somehow.

there is a news today at ATSNN about mishandling of some radioactive element and its spreading to 4 states.



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 04:32 AM
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Low white blood cell counts is the hallmark of Leukemia (among other things). If her white cell count was zero, the clotting factors in her blood were also likely depleted and she had the potential for hemmorage.

May not be the cause, but you never know.



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:04 AM
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Originally posted by FredT
Low white blood cell counts is the hallmark of Leukemia (among other things). If her white cell count was zero, the clotting factors in her blood were also likely depleted and she had the potential for hemmorage.

May not be the cause, but you never know.



fred..........that was my thought as well. leukemia...........and it does strike the young........

i'm sorry for the loss of your friend.


angie



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:16 AM
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Wait a minute...I thought low red blood cells were hallmark of leukemia with out of control high white blood cell count. That's the whole point in leukemia is that the mutant "babies" (mutated white blood cells) eat up all the red blood cells. Isn't it true that most leukemia patients who have not been diagnosed in the early stages end up in the emergency room inr respiratory distress because they don't have enough red blood cells for their lungs to work???



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:21 AM
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ok............after valhall posting i went out to ck........here's the link

it seems that it affects the white and red cells...........but the depletion of white cells is key in the dx. i think.
angie


www.leukemia-lymphoma.org...


Acute leukemia is a rapidly progressing disease that results in the accumulation of immature, functionless cells in the marrow and blood. The marrow often can no longer produce enough normal red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. Anemia, a deficiency of red cells, develops in virtually all leukemia patients. The lack of normal white cells impairs the body's ability to fight infections. A shortage of platelets results in bruising and easy bleeding.


Chronic leukemia progresses more slowly and allows greater numbers of more mature, functional cells to be made.

Signs and Symptoms
Signs of acute leukemia may include easy bruising or bleeding (as a result of platelet deficiency), paleness or easy fatigue (as a result of anemia), recurrent minor infections or poor healing of minor cuts (because of inadequate white cell count).

These symptoms and signs are not specific to leukemia and may be caused by other disorders. They do, however, warrant medical evaluation. A proportion of people with chronic leukemia may not have major symptoms and are diagnosed during a periodic medical examination. The diagnosis of leukemia requires examination of the cells in blood or marrow.



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:27 AM
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here's something else i found.................aplastic anemia

i did a search on depleted white cell count. this was the first hit that came up.

medic.med.uth.tmc.edu...

Patients with aplastic anemia generally present with symptoms of bleeding or bruising due to the thrombocytopenia (low platelets), tiredness or pallor due to the anemia (low hemoglobin), or infection due to the neutropenia (low white blood cell count). A complete blood count and reticulocyte count usually show depression of all blood elements (pancytopenia). The peripheral blood smear shows no abnormal cells. The diagnosis is confirmed by a bone marrow biopsy with an assessment of cellularity. The bone marrow is also evaluated for the degree of maturation of all cell lines.



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:27 AM
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Yes, but it is a deficiency of normal white cells...which by the way, when you do a white cell blood count the babies (the mutants) and the normal can't be differentiated. The babies are being produced out the wazoo - and they're mean little pusses that start attacking your body. So my point is - zero white blood count would NOT be indicative of leukemia because you'd have an extremely high white cell count



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:32 AM
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Originally posted by Valhall
Wait a minute...I thought low red blood cells were hallmark of leukemia with out of control high white blood cell count. That's the whole point in leukemia is that the mutant "babies" (


Sorry Val, I typed fast as I had to go out on a transport. I used the term Leukemias to generalize bone marrow disorders. The counts can go either way. MDS or Myelodysplastic syndrome (My mother in law recently succumbed to this) is charecterized by a really low white count.

From the Mayo Clinic



Possible causes of a low white blood cell count include:

Infection, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
Certain medications, especially those used in chemotherapy
Bone marrow disease, such as leukemia or myelodysplasia
Mayo Clinic



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:34 AM
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Thank you very much, Fred! New dendrite grown. As you know, one of our daughters fought ALL and it seems to be a bit different. That's probably why they named them differently, huh? *
*

I understand that the M-types have a much higher fatality instance.



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:46 AM
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Originally posted by Valhall
Thank you very much, Fred! New dendrite grown. As you know, one of our daughters fought ALL and it seems to be a bit different. That's probably why they named them differently, huh? *
*I understand that the M-types have a much higher fatality instance.


Yeah they are a tough little bugger. With most you have to be under 30 to really have a good chance. Once you are 50 there is not alot you can do with it alas. Children are simply the toughest things on this planet IMHO.

In the case above, its hard to fill in the picture completely. If she did die of a hemmorage, she should have shown signs before, like bruising or say a nose bleed etc. However, she may have taken a hard hit on the playing field that precepitated the event.

The blleding out is conjecture on my part though absent more data.

Here is an NIH document regarding mortality trends for all leukemias, and there really has been no change over the last 20 years.
Leukemia

The interesting thing is that Native Americans/Eskimos have almost 75% less incidences than the highest group. Hmmm I wonder if its the high omega 3 diet?



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:46 AM
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I think a medical phrase that may be being looked for here is "aleukemic leukemia." The "a" signifies "without," "leuko" refers to "white" cells.



posted on Aug, 9 2005 @ 06:48 AM
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Originally posted by Valhall
Isn't it true that most leukemia patients who have not been diagnosed in the early stages end up in the emergency room inr respiratory distress because they don't have enough red blood cells for their lungs to work???


For the high counts yes! This how we found out about my mom. We were over for dinner and she had chest pain and difficulty breathing. My immediate thought was heart attack and we called 911. In hindsight a heart attack would have been prefered. When her CBC came back her white count was in excess of 200,000 which was a poor prognostic indicator.



posted on Aug, 10 2005 @ 03:55 AM
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I do have my facts straight, this happened 2 days ago and the girl was 17 years old. My sister lives with her boyfriend and it was his brothers friend who died so the story did not get lost in translation. This was in South Africa incase anyone was wondering. Thanks for all the input.



posted on Aug, 10 2005 @ 08:37 AM
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Originally posted by NinjaCodeMonkey
I do have my facts straight, this happened 2 days ago and the girl was 17 years old. My sister lives with her boyfriend and it was his brothers friend who died so the story did not get lost in translation. This was in South Africa incase anyone was wondering. Thanks for all the input.


Any news on the official cause of death yet, Ninja?

Was an autopsy performed?

What were the test results?



posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 02:38 PM
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It was a bug that killed her, normally people get it in the hospital and die. 24 babies have died from it in the hospitals this year and not much is known about it. She must have got it from a person who is just a carrier or something, maybe from the soil on the hockey field. It is scary how these types of deaths are increasing, you would think you are safe in a hospital.



posted on Aug, 14 2005 @ 08:31 PM
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Originally posted by NinjaCodeMonkey
It was a bug that killed her, normally people get it in the hospital and die. 24 babies have died from it in the hospitals this year and not much is known about it. She must have got it from a person who is just a carrier or something, maybe from the soil on the hockey field. It is scary how these types of deaths are increasing, you would think you are safe in a hospital.


Alas, hospitals aren't germ free; nosocomial (hospital-caused) infections cause or contribute to the deaths of around 85,000 deaths each year in the US alone.

Part of the problem comes from visitors to the hospitals bringing in germs; but most cases are actually caused by a combination of lack of sterilisation (which is virtually never deliberate) and the increasing proliferation of antibiotic-resistance bacteria. An interesting (if disconcerting) website here has some interesting information and links.

A bigger problem is the resistance to antibiotics; in order to beat a certain bacteria, we bombard it with a drug, but it can then very easily mutate into something bigger and stronger. This is why antibiotics aren't always the best idea for very mild infections, and they're certainly not to be used for things like influenza (sadly this still happens; patients will demand antibiotics for the flu).



posted on Aug, 19 2005 @ 04:36 AM
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Hello there,

One of my friends had STI, was treated and then carried out all related tests even HIV and hepatitis and so on but all clear, however, after this infection he still experiences a cloudy puss in his urine, no burning sensation , no anyther feeling though. Is there anybody who can let us know why is that??







 
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