Doctors in hot spots across the globe have begun to report an unexpected prevalence of blood clotting among COVID cases, in what could pose a perfect storm of potentially fatal risk factors. Developing shortness of breath, chest pain and an abnormally rapid heart rate -- he was tested for coronavirus
As the COVID-19 pandemic ravages a world still grappling with vast uncertainty over the virus, a new and unnerving pattern has emerged in some patients.
The man's blood work already showed heart damage, though he had no known underlying medical conditions, no recent travel, no recent surgeries. His chest scans, shown first to ABC News, revealed a massive clot. Termed a"saddle embolus" because it hooks over branches of both pulmonary arteries, it was severely stressing the right side of the heart, unable to push blood against the clot already in its strained state.
The body's response creates a domino effect that may cause further harm, doctors told ABC News. Patients' systems are strained by numerous factors triggered by the virus -- stressed lungs, severe inflammation -- that set in motion the clotting effect.
"In the beginning of the outbreak, we started only giving them medicine to prevent clots. We saw that it wasn't enough," Dr. Cristina Abad, an anesthesiologist at Hospital Clínicos San Carlos in Madrid, told ABC News."They started having pulmonary embolisms, so we started [full] anticoagulation on everyone."Story continuesThe exact cause of increased clotting in COVID patients remains unclear -- as novel as the virus itself.
Panhwar shared a story of a patient who was nearly discharged before additional symptoms were discovered, adding:"We're seeing really swift decompensation for patients with severe symptoms." Some COVID-19 patients have been crashing, hard and fast, from sudden events -- pulmonary embolisms, cardiac arrests, respiratory failures -- leading some doctors to wonder whether such cases were spurred by a clot for which they didn't know to look.
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