Sudden Death in Sickle Cell Disease: An Autopsy Diagnosis

Sickle cell disease is a common hereditary hemoglobinopathy with high prevalence in the central and northeastern regions of India. A 24-year-old male patient with 3 days’ history of fever was brought dead to the hospital. Morphology showed clogging of blood vessels with sickled red blood cells (RBCs) in all the organs, and an autopsy diagnosis of sickle cell disease was made. As the cause may not be obvious in many cases, most patients remain undiagnosed. It is important to note the circumstances of death, gross finding, and histopathology, with hemoglobin electrophoresis if available, during autopsy to arrive at the diagnosis. This case is presented here to highlight this fact and draw attention to its pathology.