It's been two weeks i lost a dear friend. She was so beautiful, young and lively.Had a very bright future ahead of her. She boarded a 6 hour flight and about 30 minutes after she arrived her destination, she complained of a headache and slumped. She was confirmed dead on arrival at the hospital. We were all shocked and an autopsy result revealed pulmonary embolism to be the culprit. In my eye, my friend was a healthy human being, her death made me investigate pulmonary embolism much further.
Now let's take a closer look at pulmonary embolism;
This is the blockage of an artery in the lungs by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere(commonly the arm or leg) in the body through the bloodstream to the lungs. This blockage stops blood from flowing into a part of the lungs.
Rarely,pulmonary embolism can result from an embolous
that is formed from fat droplets, amniotic fluid, or some other particle that enters the blood stream.
Pulmonary embolism is a very serious condition and sometimes can go unnoticed and not show any symptoms until the damage is done(resulting in death like in the case of my friend).
However, if symptoms are noticed, prompt treatment greatly reduces the risk of death.Taking measures to prevent blood clots in your legs will help protect you against pulmonary embolism.
Some common symptoms of pulmonary embolism include:
- Fever, excessive sweating
- Irregular heartbeats
- Shortness of breath (which is very sudden)
- Chest pain which gets worse when you breath deeply or cough and won't go away when you rest
- Cough that produces blood streaked substances
- Leg swelling, usually in the calf and so on.
Note that not every pulmonary embolism patient experience these symptoms, some may do and just mistake the symptoms to be stress . Please visit your doctor anytime you notice any of the above symptoms and always go for your routine medical check up.
Do you think i have Pulmonary Embolism?
Anyone can develop pulmonary embolism. However, there are certain factors that would make one more vulnerable. Heart diseases, certain cancers with metastasis and surgery
greatly increase your risk of blood clot. Anyone in any of the above categories is given medication to prevent blood clot.
Other risk factor include smoking(when combined with other risk factors increase your chance of pulmonary embolism), obesity and even pregnancy.
Pulmonary embolism can be hereditary. If someone in your family has previously suffered or died from it, this puts you at risk.The risk of pulmonary embolism increases with age.
Children however have very low chances of developing pulmonary embolism except the child has one of the serious underlying factors stated above.
Pulmonary embolism can also lead to Pulmonary hypertension(a condition in which the blood pressure in your lungs and in the right side of the heart is too high).
How do i reduce my risks?
The easiest way for an average person who has low risk factor is to maintain a healthy diet, exercise regularly and do not smoke. Taking lots of water is also important.
For those who have high risk factors, anticoagulant drugs(blood thinners) are usually given.Compression of the legs, leg elevation and lots of physical activity are also a great ways to reduce your risks.
While travelling or doing any activity that may require you not to move around for a long period of time, make a conscious effort to take a break from sitting by moving around every other hour, flex your ankles every 30 minutes, and wear support stockings.
Pulmonary embolism can be treated by giving anticoagulant medications(usually given to help thin the blood) such as heparin or warfarin.Clot busting drugs called thrombolitics may also be administered. Treatment for pulmonary embolism aim to:
- Stop the clot from growing
- Prevent new clots from forming
- Destroy any existing clots.
Conclusion
Pulmonary embolism is a common and potentially lethal condition. Most patients who succumb to it do so within the first few hours of the crisis. Most times, there's usually a delay in the diagnosis; so please make sure you take your routine check up seriously and visit the doctor anytime you notice anything strange. Don't just conclude it to be stress.
No one knows if my friend had symptoms and ignored it, or probably had no symptom at all. Am sure she'll still be alive if she had gone for regular check up.
Thanks for reading
Please share your thoughts or previous experience with Pulmonary embolism in the comment section.
Reference:
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Risk factors for vein thrombosis are almost always expected. With common prolonged immobilization and venous stasis in the veins of the lower limbs. Surgery: orthopedic, pelvic, abdominal and especially oncology are the first ones responsible for pulmonary embolism
In the surgical environment, more than half of the pulmonary embolisms occur before the 15th postoperative day. Cancer: lung, digestive system, breast and uterus are known risks. Chemotherapy would increase this risk. Thank you for the informations.
You are so on point. I tried to explain my post in plain English so everyone would understand, but you have done a better job just by commenting... thanks for sharing the info and for stopping by!
Awww sorry about your friend......one need to be careful and thanks for letting us know
Thanks for reading and for stopping by!
Sorry to hear about your friend.
This is a useful post - in general there should be greater awareness of the risk of pulmonary embolism, especially after flying.
Anyone going on a long haul flight would reduce their risk with a few simple precautions - taking aspirin a few days beforehand, staying dehydrated, wearing compression stockings and moving around a bit in flight
But, if you are unlucky, then no amount of monitoring or preventive measures will stop this from happening
Thanks for posting!
Wow... I'll have to look into taking aspirin and staying dehydrated... hydration,moving the limbs often and compression stockings should do the trick. But as you said,
So true, thanks for stopping by!
Haha - ironically, I mostly am dehydrated when I fly as I drink too much wine.
Hopefully nobody will read that and try to fly dehydrated 😀
Lol, that's so funny... but its cool as long as it works for you. Cheers dear!
Thanks for the info. One cannot be too careful with all the diseases going around now. Afterall, prevention is better than cure. Sorry about your friend
Yes dear, prevention is just the best therapy, maintaining a healthy and balanced diet with a great exercise life is the best we can do for ourselves... cheers!
Hi, sorry about your friend, I think a regular health check or at least a quarterly health check could prevent a lot of us from some griefs.
Thanks for stopping by, definitely! Regular health check ups can and will indeed save lives!
You are welcome
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Wow! Quite expository, sorry for the loss though.
Thanks for reading!
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You have done well in this post, it's really expository . You have also challenged me to have more health related post considering that's my line. So sorry for your friend. May her soul rest in peace. Kindly follow back. Thanks @evelynbelle
Oh,your most welcome. Science is indeed the way forward, and since its your line, i expect to see even better from you. Thanks for stopping by. @thelovejunkie
Congratulations @evelynbelle!
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Unfortunate incident actually. Sorry for your friends. My condolences for the deceased family and friends. Thought Pulmonary embolism (PE) is not in the top lists of killer disease but it's prevalence is not little though. Every year, there are approximately 10 million cases of VTE (venous thromboembolism) worldwide which may turn into PE.
Diagnosis is also difficult, even for experienced doctor. Need high level of suspicion and prompt measures to prevent death. CTPA (CT pulmonary angiogram) is best investigation for PE but sometime we don't get enough time for doing so.
By the way, nice post though background is a sad event in your life.
Thank you so much for your condolences and for stopping by, i love how you've described PE so well, was trying to write it in plain english so that everyone can understand easily. PE is in most cases overlooked, and it also falls back to patients who don't go to the hospital on time, as most people consider some symptoms to be just stress. I see your a physician so I'll be expecting better posts on general health and unforseen diseases. Cheers!
Great article my friend! I do not want to be biased but a low carb diet is great for this! Many people make the mistake of thinking that a healthy diet is one that is low in fat but this is not true. A higher fat/lower carb diet is awesome for improving heart health!
Again, great article, I'm giving you a follow!
Oh yes dear friend, no biase and i totally support you, it musn't b keto;lol but a low carb diet is very important in life, heart health and keeping fit generally is intertwined. Thanks for stopping by, following you right now
Thank you for the follow! Are you not a fan of the ketogenic diet lol?
Lol... i don't really mind it, but I've always found it a little bit difficult to be consistent, I've seen it do wonders for people though; but what can i say, i love food too much😂, i try my best to eat healthy though....
Sorry to hear about your friend.
This post is extremely resourceful for us, knowing how to prevent pulmonary embolism is the point we should all take away from this post.
Yes dear, sorry for the late reply, just seeing this comment... thanks for reading!