A new alarming pattern emerged in some COVID-19 patients, as doctors worldwide began reporting cases of unexpected blood clotting among some coronavirus cases.
A critical care pulmonologist working at North Shore University Hospital on Long Island, New York encountered a 45-year-old man who developed a blood clot on his leg, after testing positive for COVID-19
Dr. Hugh Cassiere, the patient’s doctor, said that the blood clot was so dangerous that doctors had to remove his leg below his knee.
“He had no history of peripheral vascular disease, nothing that would predict,” Cassiere said in an interview. “That’s how severe this clotting can be.”
Cassiere is not the only doctor who reported the unusual clotting in COVID-19 patients.
A hospital in New Orleans admitted a man in his 30s after developing shortness of breath, chest pain and an abnormally rapid heart rate – and later on tested positive for COVID-19.
Doctors realized that these symptoms are also typical for someone with pulmonary embolism – a deadly blood clot that can move from the leg up and may damage the heart.
While the patient had no known underlying medical conditions, travel history or surgeries, his blood work had shown signs of heart damage.
The patient’s cardiovascular consult, Dr. Siyab Panhwar, is thankful that they “were able to find this and treat this early, otherwise it probably would have killed him.”
A study in the Netherlands also confirmed the said findings, as their study showed that nearly a third of 184 patients in the intensive care with COVID-19 were found to have clots, and authors say that it is “remarkably high” for ICU patients.
The authors propose, “Rather than treating all patients with COVID-19 infections at the ICU with therapeutic anticoagulation, physicians should be vigilant for signs of thrombotic complications, and order appropriate diagnostic tests at a low threshold.”