How Sickle Cell Crisis Put Me In A Wheelchair Mid-Flight — Adekunle Gold

Afrobeats singer Adekunle Gold has recounted a harrowing medical emergency mid-flight that left him unable to walk and nearly forced an emergency landing during a trip to Tanzania.

Speaking in an interview with BBC Radio 1Xtra, the singer, who lives with sickle cell disease, disclosed that the incident occurred on a flight with a layover in Ethiopia.

He explained that the crisis started as intense stomach pain, which he initially mistook for food poisoning from a meal eaten at the airport.

“The last major crisis that I had… happened on a plane,” Adekunle Gold said. “I was going to Tanzania, and I was supposed to lay over in Ethiopia. I just noticed that I started feeling pain in my stomach. I was cramping. I thought it was maybe some meal that I had at the airport.”

As the pain worsened, flight attendants grew concerned and considered making an emergency landing.

“They almost landed the plane because of me, because it was really bad,” he recalled.

Upon landing in Ethiopia, the singer was unable to walk and had to be taken to a hospital in a wheelchair, where doctors confirmed he had suffered a sickle cell crisis triggered by low oxygen and dehydration.

“For the first time in my life, they had to put me in a wheelchair, and they took me to the hospital. And the doctor told me that I had a crisis,” he added.

Following the experience, doctors advised him to stay constantly hydrated while flying to maintain healthy oxygen levels.

“I feel like I live on the plane… and if you know anyone living with sickle cell, you will know it is about oxygen levels, and when you are up there, it is crazy,” the singer stated.