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.

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More2be 05/21/2010

Brian Vickers, a 26-year-old NASCAR driver, was diagnosed with DVT and PE last week. He has even had his requisite return visit to the hospital with a recurrence of chest pains. Sound familiar?

He is now out for the remainder of the season, as much as he customarily resisted the medical advice. "I just can't crash. So I told them if I promised I wouldn't crash, could I race? The answer was no."

http://motorsports.fanhouse.com/2010/05/21/brian-vickers-says-his-2010-nascar-season-is-over/

deleted_user 05/22/2010

Cute. My husband is a huge NASCAR fan. Is it just because I've now had a PE that I'm noticing, or is it a new trend that several celebrities seem to be developing them in recent months? I thought there was a golfer a couple of weeks ago (I can't remember who).

More2be 05/22/2010

It's long been happening, given that between estimates of the surgeon general and the Mayo Clinic, there are 300,000 to 600,000 Americans every year affected by DVT/PE. Often it comes in tandem with surgery or trauma.
I believe the golfer was 51-year-old Joey Sindelar, who was diagnosed in November.
Advancing public recogniton and reeducation of health professionals has had to come from the grass roots, such as through the efforts of NATT. DVT/PE has not been getting a lot of star-power behind it. It turns out that Tom in Connecticut has had a similar thread going in the DVT forum, with some information about celebrity participation to date.
http://www.dailystrength.org/c/Deep_Vein_Thrombosis_DVT/forum/9792385-nascar-driver-and-musician

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