[demlosers]

pulmonary embolism.

I'm medically termed challenged. Is that a bad heart?

[dawn53]

I think it's a blood clot in your lung. Maybe a medical type will be able to elaborate.

[Beth]

It's an obstruction of a blood vessel in the lung, usually a blood clot.

[Maynerd]

Pulmonary embolism occurs when a venous blood clot, usually from the leg or pelvis, dislodges and flows downstream into the lung. It can be fatal. Pulmonary thromboembolic disease kills thousands of people every year.

People develop clots in the legs due to one of three risk factors - trauma to the veins (probably David Bloom's causative agent), stasis (e.g. long airplane flight), and hypercoaguability.

Very sad.

[patriciaruth]

A pulmonary embolism (PE) refers to something that blocked the blood supply in his lungs so the blood couldn't flow through to be oxygenated by the lungs.

The first thing that comes to mind is a blood clot in his leg vein or even a pelvic vein from long hours of riding cramped up (deep vein thrombosis) and a piece broke off and went up into his lung.

When you get mismatching perfusion of the lungs it can kill you from low oxygen in blood, hypoxemia, which would then affect all the organs that depend on the oxygen to survive.

This is very sad.

[MarkL]

It's what killed the Kansas City Chiefs Derrick Thomas, after he was paralyzed in an auto accident.

Mark

[Paraclete]

I believe this is the same condition that happens on long air flights. A Japanese study showed that keeping the body hydrated greatly reduced the risk. Perhaps he was dehydrated from the heat.

[thinking]

a blood clot...

[Bogey78O]

Drowning in a sea of air.

[RightWhale]

Is that a bad heart?

I had this pulmonary embolism thing once due to a sports injury. It's a clot, in my case in my leg, which can migrate and lodge in any of three places, any of which can be fatal. Lung, heart, or brain. Very common. Can be painless and very quick.

[AnalogReigns]

pulmonary embolism

(cardiology) The lodgment of a blood clot in the lumen of a pulmonary artery, causing a severe dysfunction in respiratory function.

Pulmonary emboli often have origin in the veins of the lower extremities where clots form in the deep leg veins and then travel to the lungs via the venous circulation.

Symptoms and features include acute onset of shortness of breath, chest pain (worse with breathing) and rapid heart rate and respiratory rate. Some individuals may have haemoptysis.

Diagnosis can be made on a ventilation perfusion scan of the lung or on a pulmonary angiogram.

(15 Dec 1997) fr. Online Medical Dictionary: http://cancerweb.ncl.ac.uk/cgi-bin/omd