Kayla Smith Owens understands firsthand the importance of blood donations. She was diagnosed with sickle cell disease when she was born and had her first blood transfusion when she was 12 years old to treat extreme pain associated with the disease. Now, at 24, she’s become accustomed to managing sickle cell disease and its complications, including pain crises after surgeries. In April, she underwent gallbladder surgery fully knowing that she was going to go into a sickle cell crisis after. “Everything went fine surgery-wise, I was just having pain from the sickle cell," Kayla said. "Two days after surgery, I woke up, thought everything was fine and that I was going to go home the next day. But about a couple hours after I woke up, I went to the bathroom. I felt super dizzy and fell on the floor and I was trying to get up myself, but I couldn’t.” She pulled a cord in the bathroom to alert her nurses that she needed help. “The nurses all rushed in,” Kayla said. “I realized when I...