Another Way COVID Kills: Hypercoagulable Blood ( Clots)

[McCamy Taylor]

From the WaPo (here is hoping they have followed the NYT's lead and removed the pay wall for COVID news)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/22/coronavirus-blood-clots/

Autopsies have shown some people’s lungs fill with hundreds of microclots. Errant blood clots of a larger size can break off and travel to the brain or heart, causing a stroke or heart attack. On Saturday, Broadway actor Nick Cordero, 41, had his right leg amputated after being infected with the novel coronavirus and suffering from clots that blocked blood from getting to his toes.

Lewis Kaplan, a University of Pennsylvania physician and head of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, said every year doctors treat people with clotting complications, from those with cancer to victims of severe trauma, “and they don’t clot like this.”

“The problem we are having is that while we understand that there is a clot, we don’t yet understand why there is a clot,” Kaplan said. “We don’t know. And therefore, we are scared.”


The first sign something was going haywire was in legs, which were turning blue and swelling. Even patients on blood thinners in the ICU were developing clots — which is not unusual in one or two patients in one unit but is for so many at the same time. Next came the clogging of the dialysis machines, which filter impurities in blood when kidneys are failing and jammed several times a day.

So, if you are recuperating and home and notice an extremity suddenly turning blue or a sudden drop in your oxygen saturation (I hope everyone convalescing at home has purchased a pulse oximeter) it is time to get to the hospital.

[doc03]

1. I was lucky yesterday I found the last pulse

Oxymeter at Wallmart on the bottom shelf in the back where nobody could see. Myself I had 2 blood clots in my leg back in 2006 and 2007. I have been taking cumadin for 15 years now.

[SheltieLover]

2. K&R

[Baitball Blogger]

3. The Andromeda Strain, all over again.

[denem]

4. This is one 'evil' virus.

The more we know, the worse it looks.

[Demsrule86]

5. My Brother survived this. He almost didn't. He passed out in the bathroom was rushed

to St. Vincent's in Bridgeport Connecticut with difficulty breathing...The doctor caught it, and he survived...it was touch and go...spent about a week in intensive care. But even after you are better it could happen again...even on blood thinners you can still throw a clot...so still waiting fingers crossed-so far so good.