Pulmonary Embolism Support Group
By far the most common form of pulmonary embolism is a thromboembolism, which occurs when a blood clot, generally a venous thrombus, becomes dislodged from its site of formation and embolizes to the arterial blood supply of one of the lungs. Symptoms may include difficulty breathing, pain during breathing, and more rarely circulatory instability and death.
I'm not looking for help for anything. I just want to be able to talk about what's gone on. Almost 13 years ago i met my best friend, my other half. About a year and a half ago she almost died from a blood clot. She recovered. A year later, she started not being able to breathe again and 911 was called. She was taken into ICU. Being as she was a big girl, they said they "couldn't" fit her into there CAT scan machine to check for clots, so they ran alternate test. It came back she didn't have any this time, and was unlikely to develop any. So they moved her out of ICU. About 2 hours later, mom was sitting by her side making plans for her to go home in the morning. She started complaining her chest hurt, she got up to go the bathroom and couldn't breathe. Mom called a nurse who rushed in and gave her a morphine injection, didn't say one word to my best friend, didn't flush her IV, infact, my best friend wasn't even fully in her bed yet, she was leaning over it. They did NOTHING to help her get into bed, mom helped her. Mom then got up to get water, and as she got to the door, my best friend said she couldn't breathe again. Mom told her to sit up, which she did.... and she fell to the floor, on her face, gone. Mom screamed for help, nurses rushed in, didn't even bother to use the paddles on her, put her back in her bed and pronounced her dead. I'm having a very time believing it wasnt that morphine shot, the lack of knowledgeable from the drs and nurses treating her, that killed her. I miss her everyday, she was like my sister. They were treating her as if she had a blood clot even after test results came back. She had a massive heart attack caused by a blood clot that she was unlikely to develop and didn't have that was "hiding". How can a blood clot hide from a test that's 99% accurate, and why would they give someone who has a family history of heart problems morphine?? Why would they give it to begin with when she's in for a blood clot?? I really could use some help understanding there logic here, and how a MASSIVE, not little, but HUGE blood clot over 3 inches in diameter hide from tests? Were these doctor's wrong? She survived the first one, the 2nd one killed her. My best friend was the strongest, kindest, most caring person I've ever met, and thanks to what i feel was negligince, her life is over. Something that should have been detected, treated, took her life. I'm not here because I'm dealing with them myself, but because I'm trying to understand how almost 4 month's ago... something like this took away someone very dear to me, and left me feeling empty...
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Look at what my best friend did with my picture!
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We all have 24 hours in a day. How we spend these hours is important. Watching a little bit of a video about how sitting affects us made me aware of how much sitting and laying down I do. Gonna have to work on that.Your turn. Tell me another truth.
I'm not sure what tests they ran. A CAT scan is typically what is used when diagnosing a Pulmonary Embolism, and that is probably the most accurate. It could be that the clot broke off and traveled through her heart very quickly and that's why it happened so suddenly. I don't know why they gave her morphine. I'm not sure what they thought they were treating by doing that.
Her family can get copies of her medical records. That may shed some light on the tests that were run, what meds they gave her, etc. Unfortunately and sadly, people do die from pulmonary embolisms and I sometimes wonder if it's just luck and timing for those of us that are fortunate to survive.
I wish I had answers. Pulmonary Embolisms take lots of people and symptoms are often misdiagnosed. I'm sorry your friend was taken.
If you find that you're really struggling with this, you might visit the Bereavement group to see if you can find some additional support their. Losing a friend so suddenly is hard. Best wishes to you.