Adekunle Gold has recounted a sickle cell crisis that seized him on a flight to Tanzania and left him unable to walk when the plane reached Ethiopia. The 39-year-old singer shared the story in a BBC interview now making the rounds, saying this was his last major crisis and not the night at 20 he has spoken about before.
“The last major crisis that I had. This is not the one I talked about when I was 20. The last major crisis I had happened on a plane,” he said.
He flies often, and he knows altitude can starve the blood of oxygen. That knowledge did not stop the pain when it came.
The trip included a stop in Ethiopia. A dull ache started in his stomach, then cramps. He blamed the airport meal.
“I was going to Tanzania. And I was supposed to stop 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. I was like, ‘I shouldn’t have eaten that’.”
He kept scolding himself as the pain grew. The toilet offered no answer.
“I was beating myself up about that, but it kept going. I went to the toilet nothing came out. They almost landed the plane because of me, because it was really bad.”
The aircraft was already close to Ethiopia, which he called a mercy. On the ground, his legs failed him.
“Thankfully, we were closer to landing in Ethiopia. I could not even walk. 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.”
Until that moment, crisis had always meant joints. The stomach attack was new to him.
“The only crisis I have known in my life is your joints. That was the first time I ever heard about that.”
The doctor tied it to dehydration and low oxygen and told him to drink plenty of water whenever he flies.
“The doctor now told me that when I am on the plane, I should make sure I drink a lot of water. And that my oxygen level was low because I did not drink a lot of water that day.”