2024 Blood Clot Emergency in SMA
Deborah gets credit for saving my life. I had had some severe shortness of breath and had seen a couple of doctors in San Miguel de Allende but had not really worried about it. On Feb. 10, I was up on a step ladder hanging some pictures when Deborah noticed that my right leg was extremely swollen. We had plans to have lunch over at Yolanda and Jeff’s place and I figured I could go to the emergency room after that. Deb would have none of that. She and Yolanda told me to get in the DAMN CAR. I am glad I did; they would have killed me!
The doctors at Mac Hospital discovered many blood clots up and down my right leg. A Ct scan also reveal two clots near my heart ready to enter my lungs. They brought in a team from Queretaro with Boston Scientific and performed an angiojet thrombectomy to remove the clots. It really was amazing.
Angiojet thrombectomy is a catheter-based procedure used for thrombolysis (see Thrombolytic Treatment for other therapy options). "Thrombus" is a blood clot; "lysis" means to break apart. So, angiojet thrombectomy is used to break up a blood clot that is causing partial or full obstruction of blood flow in an artery.