Any thoughts on Marvin Anderson's medical examiner blaming sickle cell instead of the adult sheriff employees who pounced on him?
Sickle Cell disease does its damage by blocking tiny blood vessels. The cells are too large to pass through, so they block the passage of needed red blood cells. The blockage often causes pain episodes. It can damage internal organs, and often causes stroke, even in children, by clogging blood vessels to the brain.
I'm not a medic, but obviously, you don't want to beat up a patient with anemia. A beating would immediately make it worse from internal hemorrhaging and bruising. I should think it could easily be fatal.