Tomorrow is World Thrombosis Day and is our chance to educate friends and family about deadly blood clots. We suggest you dress in red and blue hoping to catch people’s attention, then when they comment about your clothes, you can talk about blood clots, both red (stroke and heart attack) and blue (DVT and pulmonary embolus).
Paul does this every year, but as his clothes are so similar to the usual clothes he wears to work, I don’t think anyone notices!
I decided to paint my finger-nails red and blue! I’ll let you know if anyone notices them.
1 in 4 people die from blood clots
The main things to tell people are that
- 1 in 4 people die from blood clots
- blood clots cause three major categories of illness
– heart attack
– stroke
– venous-thromboembolism, VTE (mainly pulmonary embolism and DVT)
People usually know something about heart attack and stroke but very little about VTE. Tell people that DVT and pulmonary embolism are serious conditions that can be fatal or lead to long term problems like post-thrombotic syndrome or pulmonary hypertension. Teach them not to ignore pain in the calf or sudden onset of breathlessness.
Tomorrow we’ll have fuller information about VTE that you can share.
Please let us know how you dress and whether anyone notices.
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