Markus was diagnosed with sickle cell disease when he was 18 months old. His first hospitalization was at just 2 years old, and he has been in and out of the hospital ever since. He credits blood transfusions for giving him the relief he needs from extreme pain and complications associated with sickle cell disease. Every four weeks, Markus receives red cell exchanges, a non-surgical therapy that removes units of abnormal red blood cells and replaces them with units of healthy red blood cells obtained from blood donors. “It literally keeps me out of the hospital,” Markus said. “I can be more active. I can go to the gym and work out if I want, long walks with the wife — there’s just a lot more freedom because I get that treatment.” With as many blood transfusions as he has received over the course of his life, it’s easy for Markus to lose track of them, but he’ll never forget the very first time. “It was before I had my gallbladder taken out,” Markus said. “I’ve never felt like th...