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The clotting event doesn't wait for the right time.

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It doesn't meander or hesitate.

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It makes its presence known when you oftentimes least expect it.

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And right before we started taping, like something just hit me and I had a hard time
catching my breath.

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And I was just like, man, this is really, really weird.

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But I, you know, we had a show to do.

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What do you do when a moment that feels symptomatically mundane goes from bad to worse?

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the doctor immediately said, you need to go to the emergency room right now.

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And that's when I knew, whatever this is, it just got real, real fast.

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Every six minutes, somebody in America dies of a blood clot.

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We're here to change that statistic.

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Welcome to Taking a Breath, a Stop the Clot podcast.

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An award-winning podcast dedicated to bringing awareness of the dangers of blood clots
from the clotting disorders community to the world.

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With the help of many notable blood clot survivors, we are here to give you the knowledge
and the skills you need to prevent this silent killer.

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My name is Leslie Lake.

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I am the president of the National Blood Clot Alliance and I am a blood clot survivor.

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And my name is Todd Robertson.

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I'm the patient engagement liaison for the National Blood Clot Alliance and I am a
seven-time blood clot survivor.

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And we're here to stop the clot.

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As we've discussed many times on this podcast, symptoms of a clotting event are often
generic, from an ache to a soreness to a pesky cough that you just can't shake.

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For many, the lead up to these crucial moments feels unceremonious and uneventful.

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In the event of our guest today, it was so commonplace that going to work didn't feel out
of the question.

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How do you distinguish the severity of a situation that can feel so ordinary?

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from the dangers of this very real threat.

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Please join me in welcoming our guest today to discuss his journey as a blood clot
survivor.

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This is Dave Hall.

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My name is Dave Hall.

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I'm a morning news anchor in Las Vegas, Nevada.

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So my story actually starts on December 30th of 2023.

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My family, we were up in Brian Head, Utah, vacationing for the New Year's, went
snowboarding.

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We were playing flag football with the kids, doing all kinds of stuff.

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And we're like, hey, there's a pickleball court over there.

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I had never played pickleball before.

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We hopped on the court, started playing.

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And ironically enough, I was playing against my wife and I stepped back.

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Felt like somebody punched me or kicked me right in the back of my calf.

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Next thing you know, I'm on the ground in pain.

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And sure enough, torn Achilles tendon from playing pickleball for the first time in my
life.

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Because we were on vacation, I couldn't get it looked at for about three more days.

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And it was during the holidays, but I knew I felt the pop.

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And we have some friends who work in that world and they had some tests we could run to
see if my Achilles was attached.

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And I was failing all the tests.

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So I pretty much knew.

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that I had torn my Achilles and then got it confirmed once I saw a doctor.

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So the first step was I opted not to have surgery because the doctor basically said,
unless you're like a professional athlete or something, you know, somebody my age, my

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activity level, it heals on its own and it heals almost as strong as if you would have
surgery and the re rupture rate is very low.

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So he's like, you avoid any complications of having surgery.

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So I was like, well, that sounds good.

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So they threw a cast on it.

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And I was in the cast, you know, I had my little roller.

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I was going back to where, you know, when you have a major injury, like an Achilles tear,
you don't realize how it affects every single aspect of your life.

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Like everything is a pain in the, know what, everything takes 10 times longer.

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Just go into the bathroom, like doing anything.

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So about a month of that and kind of readjusting to my new life, you know, I was going
back to work.

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and everything was going fine.

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The Achilles was going fine.

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And then one day I also, I host a betting show, a football betting show at the TV station.

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And it was a Thursday.

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And I remember that Monday, Tuesday of that week, I felt a little sick, not nothing bad.

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Like I was still going to work, you know, a little bit of a sore throat, a little fatigue,
a little out of breath, doing some things, but nothing alarming, nothing that would raise

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red flags.

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And then Thursday, so literally we're taping in the studio at the TV station, taping our
football betting show.

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And right before we started taping, like something just hit me and I had a hard time
catching my breath.

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And I was just like, man, this is really, really weird.

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But you know, we had a show to do.

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So I just kind of powered through it and I was literally having a hard time just getting
through the segments.

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I was losing my breath.

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I was having a hard time just getting through a sentence or two.

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And honestly, at the time I thought, because COVID was starting to rage again at the time,
I thought, I know shortness of breath and fatigue was one of the signs of COVID.

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So I thought, I wonder if I just have a bad bout of COVID.

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Blood clots never entered my mind once.

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I had never once in my life thought about blood clots.

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And even in that moment, I wasn't.

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So I go home, we get through the taping barely and I head home and I just relax for the
rest of the night.

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And then a really bad cough started to develop and the fatigue was just getting worse and
worse to the point where just getting out of bed and going to the bathroom, I was out of

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breath.

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And so I'm going to have to go to a health clinic tomorrow.

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And it was probably a blessing in disguise.

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I literally coughed through the night.

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I didn't sleep at all.

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I had a really violent cough and that

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Probably was a blessing in disguise because it kept me awake.

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It kept me up And so the next morning about six o'clock my wife who was a nurse and was
getting very concerned about me as well as like we should probably go to the quick care

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and She's like, yep.

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She's like, let's go right now.

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So we go to the quick care the first thing they do of course is they check your oxygen
level with the pulsometer thing and A healthy level is anywhere from 99 95 to like 99

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percent.

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I was 72 percent

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And so the nurse who did it immediately called in the doctor.

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The doctor immediately said, you need to go to the emergency room right now.

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And that's when I knew, uh-oh, whatever this is, it just got real, real fast.

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And so literally within, I don't know, less than 24 hours, I went from taping a show in
studio to the back of an ambulance riding.

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And I still didn't know what it was at the time.

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I still thought I had a bad, bad a COVID.

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like at this point, blood clots still was not even a thought for me.

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I wasn't panicking.

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My wife had a really good poker face.

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She told me after the fact that she had a suspicion that it was a blood clot, that she
didn't want to freak me out.

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So she was very concerned, but she wasn't showing it to me.

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So as I'm riding in the back of the ambulance, I'm just like, wow, this took a turn.

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I, you know, I wasn't expecting this.

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And even once we arrived to the hospital and they garnered me in, I was like, okay, well,
let's, you know, they're going to run some tests and it's going to be a bad, bad COVID and

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we'll take it from there.

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And then they started running some scans and after about a couple hours, the doctors come
back in and they're like, yeah, we have pretty serious problem here.

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You have a massive blood clot and it turned out to be a saddle PE.

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So it was both sides of my lungs and it was huge.

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And so this went from, bummer, I got COVID to

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Holy crap.

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My life's potentially in danger here.

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So things turned very, very quickly.

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They immediately put me on some powerful blood thinners.

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And then it was about three, four hours of just a blur.

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Doctors and nurses coming in.

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My oxygen levels were so low.

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They put like this supersonic oxygen thing into me.

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Not like your typical oxygen tank.

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I mean, this was like,

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rocket blast through my nose.

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So it was, it was very disorienting.

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had a massive headache at the time.

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They were talking about their various options and right from the beginning, again,
thankfully my wife works in the healthcare industry and she doesn't work in this field

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specifically, but she knows her stuff.

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Once she realized how large the clot was and where it was specifically, she wanted them to
do the thrombectomy like right away.

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The doctors were throwing some other options out there, but

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She was very adamant about the thrombectomy.

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And then finally, the final doctor, the guy who I called my guardian angel, Dr.

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Stan Lu, who works for the St.

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Rose Hospital System here in Southern Nevada, he came in and he's like, yep, we need to do
the thrombectomy on you.

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We need to do it as soon as possible.

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And so that's when it really landed for me that it was like, holy crap, this is life and
death stuff right here.

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You know, this went from an inconvenient cough to...

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Holy crap, I'm in the emergency room needing a life-saving procedure like that.

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For having a spouse that works in healthcare, I've always, I guess, taken it for granted.

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I've never really had any major health scares in my life.

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In fact, when I tore my Achilles, that was the most serious injury I've ever had in my
life.

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So, I mean, I had a one-two punch right out of the gate in 2024.

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You realize just how fragile it is and how quickly things can change and really having
almost no warning, at least no

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red flag horns blaring warning.

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It was like, I had a cough.

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You know, maybe I have COVID.

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No, no, no, you, have the most serious blood clotting disorder known to mankind and we
have to save your life like right now.

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So it took me a couple of days, but once everything kind of settled in and you really
start thinking back of what just happened, cause it all happened so fast.

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You definitely have a greater appreciation for life and

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I definitely have a greater appreciation for my wife who if it wasn't for her, I don't
know if I'm here today.

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I'll tell you that.

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So this happened early February, 2024, so about a month after my Achilles tear.

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And she had been talking about your story, I think, could really resonate with a lot of
people.

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And I think you could maybe help some people.

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And I really pushed back on it because it was such a personal experience that I kind of
wanted to not share it and just keep it in here.

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I'm kind of that way as a person anyway, I keep a lot of stuff inside.

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But as wise as she is.

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she finally convinced me to do it and it got exactly the reaction she said it would.

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I've been doing TV news for about 30 years now and I got more response from this story
than I think every other story I've ever done combined.

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It just really connected with the people of Las Vegas and I got dozens and dozens and
dozens of emails and phone calls and letters, people still writing letters these days of

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people who have gone through something similar.

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I was telling you beforehand.

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The day after the story aired, was at the gym working out and this really big muscular guy
comes up to me.

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He's like, Hey, are you the news guy?

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And I'm like, yeah, yeah.

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Hey, know, you never know what's coming after that.

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And he's like, I saw your story yesterday morning.

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He's like, I've been having this pain in my leg, kind of like what you were talking about.

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And it made me make an appointment with my doctor to get it looked at.

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And I've had dozens of people with similar stories to that.

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So while I was initially hesitant to do the story.

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really glad I did.

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I was one of those people.

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I had never thought about blood clots once in my life until they said, have a massive
pulmonary embolism and you need life-saving surgery.

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And it's like, wait, what?

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What's funny about that too is for a lot of people, and I'm one of those people, until
you're directly affected by something, sometimes it's just something that's out there.

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And now I see blood clot stories everywhere.

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I just saw recently that Gal Gadot, the actress who played Wonder Woman, had a blood clot
when she was pregnant.

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Serena Williams, the tennis star, she dealt with blood clots when she was pregnant.

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know, college football players, NFL players.

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And so it's like now I see blood clot stuff everywhere, whereas before it just didn't
register.

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I guess what I would say to people is listen to your body.

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Your body is always your best messenger.

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And thankfully I did.

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Like a lot of guys that can be stubborn and not want to go to doctors and just be like,
I'll be fine.

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But in this case, I knew something was off and I knew something was different this time.

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So even though I didn't know it was blood clots, you know, I knew it was bad, whatever it
was.

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And so, you know, I knew I needed to go get it checked out and I'm so grateful I did.

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also, you know, just spread the word, listen to this podcast and you'll see and hear the
stories of people from all around the world in different settings and different lives.

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And we all share this common link now of being affected by blood clots.

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And what I didn't know is just how many people are affected by it and just how widespread
it is because it's never talked about.

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which is another reason why I wanted to do the story is to try to help spread awareness of
it.

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And that's why it's so great you guys are doing this podcast too.

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As we advance in the medical field alongside new discovery, we use new information to
inform present day processes and change the way we care for patients.

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When it comes to blood clots and clotting events, how are strategies advancing to help
mitigate catastrophic complications when blood thinners are not enough?

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Here to discuss mechanical thrombectomy as a life-saving procedure from Corwell West in
Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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This is Dr.

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Mike Knox.

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Hello, I'm Mike Knox.

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I'm an interventional radiologist.

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I work in Grand Rapids, Michigan with a group called Advanced Radiology Services.

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Work predominantly out of Corwell Health West in Grand Rapids.

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Pulmonary embolism and DVT have been a passion of mine for many years.

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And it's very exciting to me to see evolution of technology.

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I've been doing interventional radiology now almost 40 years.

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and see over the last decade or two, there's been a substantial interest now in addressing
the needs of our communities with pulmonary embolism.

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It's something that's been relatively unaddressed historically, but I think that now
there's some tools that allow us to really address this disease and so focus on diagnosis

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to first of all identify who might be affected by the disease and then apply the
appropriate therapies.

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And so it's a very exciting time for me personally, and I think for

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or community of physicians and patients that are affected by this disease.

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Thrombectomy refers to physical removal of clot from the body wherever it might be.

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There are various ways to address pulmonary embolism specifically is what we're talking
about.

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Whether to allow blood thinner, which doesn't dissolve clot, but simply prevents clot from
forming to prevent additional clot from forming and then allow the body's own mechanisms

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to break down clot, which we have the ability to do.

209
00:15:22,394 --> 00:15:31,096
So that's been kind of the historical way that PE's been treated is just with blood
thinner and allowing patients to recover on their own or not, as the case may be.

210
00:15:31,096 --> 00:15:34,889
There are drugs that can actually dissolve clot but come with some inherent risks.

211
00:15:34,889 --> 00:15:42,536
But mechanical thrombectomy is an exciting new advance in the last several years that
actually allows physical removal of the clot from the blood vessels where it's

212
00:15:42,536 --> 00:15:43,067
obstructing.

213
00:15:43,067 --> 00:15:53,135
And so it's a process that involves putting a catheter into the venous system and
negotiating to wherever the clot is and then applying suction typically to aspirate the

214
00:15:53,135 --> 00:15:54,050
clot out.

215
00:15:54,050 --> 00:16:02,697
One of the exciting things about this procedure is it can be done very safely and with
minimal sedation or even no sedation when appropriate.

216
00:16:02,697 --> 00:16:08,121
So patients can be awake alert and we can assess them clinically as to how they're
responding.

217
00:16:08,121 --> 00:16:15,527
It's not typically a painful procedure except for just the local anesthetic that is
applied in the groin where we put the catheter in from.

218
00:16:15,527 --> 00:16:18,820
So it can be very well tolerated with minimal or no sedation.

219
00:16:18,820 --> 00:16:21,692
It takes about an hour or so to do.

220
00:16:21,692 --> 00:16:23,918
And one of the very gratifying

221
00:16:23,918 --> 00:16:29,838
parts of mechanical thrombectomy from a procedural standpoint is the fact that we're
actually able to see the clot that we get out.

222
00:16:29,838 --> 00:16:37,078
So instead of just dissolving and hope that it goes away and improves things, we actually
can physically see the clot as it comes out of the body and we run through a filter and

223
00:16:37,078 --> 00:16:38,318
remove the clot.

224
00:16:38,318 --> 00:16:47,438
We can then assess kind of how patients have responded, not only clinically by monitoring
their vital signs and how they're breathing and oxygen saturation, but also as we inject

225
00:16:47,438 --> 00:16:54,038
some contrast to map out the pulmonary circulation, we can see in real time how that's
improved after removing.

226
00:16:54,038 --> 00:17:03,846
So very gratifying from a procedural standpoint, but also from a patient standpoint, they
can experience immediate relief and improvement.

227
00:17:08,705 --> 00:17:11,606
So my first question is, you still playing pickleball?

228
00:17:12,247 --> 00:17:16,789
I have not played pickleball since then, but I have.

229
00:17:16,789 --> 00:17:22,531
Just over a year later, we were back in Utah, same scene of the crime.

230
00:17:22,531 --> 00:17:27,654
And I did get back on my snowboard and I snowboarded for the first time since I tore my
Achilles.

231
00:17:27,654 --> 00:17:34,317
So I'll probably play pickleball again just to get that monkey off my back kind of thing.

232
00:17:34,317 --> 00:17:35,747
But I'm in no rush.

233
00:17:35,747 --> 00:17:37,118
Let's put it that way.

234
00:17:37,198 --> 00:17:42,558
If I never see a crutches or a walker or one of those.

235
00:17:42,658 --> 00:17:45,678
It was so miserable.

236
00:17:45,678 --> 00:17:46,318
swear.

237
00:17:46,318 --> 00:17:48,878
The second thing is thank God for your wife.

238
00:17:48,878 --> 00:17:49,898
Yes.

239
00:17:49,898 --> 00:18:00,458
You know, because we presented with all of this information and life saving situation and
oh, by the way, we want to do something called mechanical thrombectomy, like make a

240
00:18:00,458 --> 00:18:01,418
decision right now.

241
00:18:01,418 --> 00:18:03,598
The fact that she even knew what it was.

242
00:18:04,290 --> 00:18:05,351
work is incredible.

243
00:18:05,351 --> 00:18:06,692
No, you're absolutely right.

244
00:18:06,692 --> 00:18:08,574
Because I was clueless.

245
00:18:08,574 --> 00:18:10,970
I mean, I wouldn't know what to do.

246
00:18:10,970 --> 00:18:12,670
I would have no idea.

247
00:18:12,670 --> 00:18:15,620
And you know, they were throwing different options.

248
00:18:15,620 --> 00:18:17,842
And you know, I was kind of out of it at the time.

249
00:18:17,842 --> 00:18:23,806
So I was just kind of laying in bed, huffing and puffing trying to get oxygen into my
lungs.

250
00:18:23,827 --> 00:18:25,819
And so she really took control.

251
00:18:25,819 --> 00:18:29,622
And she was on the phone working her doctor sources.

252
00:18:29,622 --> 00:18:32,274
And I mean, it was

253
00:18:32,278 --> 00:18:33,448
It was really impressive.

254
00:18:33,448 --> 00:18:41,145
And the most impressive thing of all was she knew how dire my situation was, but she never
let on to me.

255
00:18:41,418 --> 00:18:42,666
I mean, it's amazing.

256
00:18:42,666 --> 00:18:46,569
Somebody was definitely looking out for you that day for sure.

257
00:18:46,569 --> 00:18:49,481
I'm curious to there's so many similarities when you're talking.

258
00:18:49,481 --> 00:18:50,218
was listening to it.

259
00:18:50,218 --> 00:18:58,006
I was like, my gosh, she's like, he's like reading my story also really, particularly
after it happened.

260
00:18:58,006 --> 00:18:59,647
I didn't want to share it with anybody.

261
00:18:59,647 --> 00:19:10,657
Like I wanted it to be my thing that I was processing and, and I didn't have any interest
in it until I started to realize that I could actually have a positive impact on other

262
00:19:10,657 --> 00:19:11,478
people.

263
00:19:11,478 --> 00:19:16,092
Cause it's really weird that it happens so often with such frequency.

264
00:19:16,092 --> 00:19:22,568
mean, it's the statistics are every six minutes, somebody dies from it in the United
States every minute somebody's diagnosed with it.

265
00:19:22,568 --> 00:19:24,952
But like people just don't know about it.

266
00:19:24,952 --> 00:19:31,286
This is a great opportunity to actually raise awareness for something that everybody
should know about because it's so preventable.

267
00:19:31,286 --> 00:19:35,148
And especially with men, I mean, we're hard headed, we're knuckleheads.

268
00:19:35,148 --> 00:19:36,268
We all know this.

269
00:19:36,268 --> 00:19:38,289
I fall under that category.

270
00:19:38,290 --> 00:19:40,491
And so we're just like, we'll be fine.

271
00:19:40,491 --> 00:19:41,632
We'll be fine.

272
00:19:41,632 --> 00:19:46,154
And in a lot of cases you will be, but not if you have a blood clot.

273
00:19:46,154 --> 00:19:49,116
I was surprised of all the people who reached out to me.

274
00:19:49,116 --> 00:19:53,618
The number of men who reached out to me was probably more than the number of women.

275
00:19:53,866 --> 00:19:58,371
And I was really kind of surprised by that and also heartened by that.

276
00:19:58,371 --> 00:20:02,595
Cause I guess, you know, sometimes guys need to hear it from another guy.

277
00:20:02,595 --> 00:20:05,918
Maybe I don't know, you know, maybe that's the mentality.

278
00:20:05,918 --> 00:20:14,036
Military veterans, the big muscle guy at the gym, just, you know, people you wouldn't
normally expect to hear from were reaching out.

279
00:20:14,036 --> 00:20:18,780
And that was really rewarding that it landed with them as well.

280
00:20:19,502 --> 00:20:24,922
Well, it is important to have your voice and to have a male voice as well, because you're
right.

281
00:20:24,922 --> 00:20:27,562
Men tend not to share the way that women do.

282
00:20:27,782 --> 00:20:30,382
I also, watched you share your story.

283
00:20:30,382 --> 00:20:37,842
There's a recording of it and I watched you share your story and I just, I cried at the
end of it because it was so emotional.

284
00:20:37,842 --> 00:20:38,742
Yeah.

285
00:20:38,862 --> 00:20:40,462
Yeah, that was hard.

286
00:20:40,762 --> 00:20:46,806
Cause you know, I pride myself on being a, you know, a strong man, of course.

287
00:20:46,806 --> 00:20:49,768
And so I didn't want to do that, but I couldn't help it.

288
00:20:49,768 --> 00:21:01,874
was, I was overcome not only, you know, my wife who was like I said, just an absolute
rock, not only that day, but days after and whatnot, but all the medical staff that took

289
00:21:01,874 --> 00:21:03,995
care of me, my doctor, Dr.

290
00:21:03,995 --> 00:21:06,627
Stan Liu, who's the one who performed the thrombectomy.

291
00:21:06,627 --> 00:21:10,359
And I remember I was waiting to get wheeled into the operating room.

292
00:21:10,359 --> 00:21:11,589
He came over and talked to me.

293
00:21:11,589 --> 00:21:15,681
And you know, at that point I was just like, well, you know, this could be it.

294
00:21:16,022 --> 00:21:16,782
Like if.

295
00:21:16,782 --> 00:21:19,562
If this doesn't go well, I don't know what happens from here.

296
00:21:19,562 --> 00:21:21,162
And he just really put me at ease.

297
00:21:21,162 --> 00:21:23,502
He's like, I've done a lot of these.

298
00:21:23,502 --> 00:21:26,042
I've been looking over your scans.

299
00:21:26,042 --> 00:21:27,082
I'm gonna get that out of you.

300
00:21:27,082 --> 00:21:29,182
Don't worry, I'm gonna take care of you.

301
00:21:29,182 --> 00:21:32,662
And I don't know if people know, but during the procedure, you're awake.

302
00:21:32,662 --> 00:21:34,042
Like I was awake.

303
00:21:34,042 --> 00:21:43,122
So that's one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about is because mechanical
thrombectomy is relatively new and it's a new treatment option for patients.

304
00:21:43,122 --> 00:21:45,378
Thank God it didn't exist for...

305
00:21:45,378 --> 00:21:47,740
venous blood clots that many years ago.

306
00:21:47,740 --> 00:21:49,511
What was that whole process like?

307
00:21:49,511 --> 00:21:51,662
Because you are awake for the procedure.

308
00:21:51,662 --> 00:21:59,808
Well, mean, they start, they insert the catheter or whatever through the groin and then
start snaking it up through your chest.

309
00:21:59,808 --> 00:22:01,719
And you can feel that, by the way.

310
00:22:01,719 --> 00:22:03,270
Did you have that procedure as well?

311
00:22:03,270 --> 00:22:04,021
No, I didn't.

312
00:22:04,021 --> 00:22:05,922
I had straight anticoagulation.

313
00:22:05,922 --> 00:22:06,933
Okay.

314
00:22:06,933 --> 00:22:10,695
And so you can literally feel it snaking through your chest.

315
00:22:11,196 --> 00:22:13,797
So that's very weird.

316
00:22:14,490 --> 00:22:20,233
I remember the doctor saying, I think the procedure was maybe hour, hour and 15 minutes.

317
00:22:20,233 --> 00:22:24,996
He's like, you and you should, you should feel instant relief when I start sucking out.

318
00:22:24,996 --> 00:22:28,008
mean, it's called the flow tree, ver is what the machine is called.

319
00:22:28,008 --> 00:22:34,662
And so it literally, it's like a little vacuum cleaner that goes in there, attaches itself
to the clots and then sucks them out.

320
00:22:34,662 --> 00:22:36,123
That's how the machine works.

321
00:22:36,123 --> 00:22:42,686
And so we're probably, I don't know, you like I said, I'm kind of in a haze, but what felt
like a long time.

322
00:22:42,734 --> 00:22:44,694
And I was not getting any relief.

323
00:22:44,694 --> 00:22:46,394
I was still having a hard time breathing.

324
00:22:46,394 --> 00:22:49,394
And I was thinking to myself, it's not working.

325
00:22:49,394 --> 00:22:50,694
He can't get them out.

326
00:22:50,694 --> 00:22:53,134
At that moment, I was starting to get kind of concerned.

327
00:22:53,134 --> 00:22:55,754
And then he was checking in on me from time to time.

328
00:22:55,754 --> 00:22:57,754
And then he said, David, are you doing okay?

329
00:22:57,754 --> 00:23:01,754
And I'm like, yeah, he's like, okay, I'm going to go in now and start sucking them out.

330
00:23:01,754 --> 00:23:03,534
I'm like, oh, thank God.

331
00:23:04,214 --> 00:23:06,454
He hadn't gotten to that part yet.

332
00:23:06,574 --> 00:23:11,244
And I'm not kidding, Leslie, when he said you feel instant relief, like

333
00:23:11,244 --> 00:23:15,556
you could literally feel the clots being sucked out of your chest.

334
00:23:15,556 --> 00:23:20,719
I always say it's almost like an elephant was sitting on your chest and the elephant
stands up.

335
00:23:20,719 --> 00:23:24,481
It's just like this rush of oxygen into your body.

336
00:23:24,481 --> 00:23:29,554
And it was just like, take this deep breath of oxygen and it was just such a relief.

337
00:23:29,554 --> 00:23:31,285
was like, thank God it worked.

338
00:23:32,306 --> 00:23:35,688
I mean, it's really amazing how far technology has come.

339
00:23:35,688 --> 00:23:40,386
And now we need to make sure there's enough interventional radiologists who can perform
this procedure.

340
00:23:40,386 --> 00:23:44,048
so that other people can get access to it, because it's not everywhere.

341
00:23:44,109 --> 00:23:46,190
No, it's not.

342
00:23:46,271 --> 00:23:51,905
that was another reason why I wanted to do the story is because that is pretty new
technology.

343
00:23:51,905 --> 00:23:59,101
I wanted to help share that side of it as well and let people know who are in dire
straits, that there are other options.

344
00:23:59,101 --> 00:24:05,325
Oddly enough, a guy I work with at the TV station a few months after me also came down
with blood clots.

345
00:24:06,038 --> 00:24:10,140
Fortunately and unfortunately, his case wasn't as severe as mine.

346
00:24:10,140 --> 00:24:12,671
So he didn't get the thrombectomy.

347
00:24:12,671 --> 00:24:14,882
They just put him on the blood thinners.

348
00:24:14,882 --> 00:24:19,483
And so it took him about a good three to four months to even somewhat recover.

349
00:24:19,483 --> 00:24:22,745
He's still not a hundred percent as to what he was before.

350
00:24:22,745 --> 00:24:28,027
Whereas in my case, you know, I went from, crap, super dire situation.

351
00:24:28,027 --> 00:24:28,457
Dr.

352
00:24:28,457 --> 00:24:29,988
Lou works his magic.

353
00:24:29,988 --> 00:24:31,428
And then I was okay.

354
00:24:31,428 --> 00:24:34,870
Like I've been fine ever since I've had no other problems.

355
00:24:34,870 --> 00:24:35,702
I've had.

356
00:24:35,702 --> 00:24:37,923
follow up scans that have come back clean.

357
00:24:37,923 --> 00:24:44,846
So I could not recommend that thrombectomy enough if you're qualified to get it.

358
00:24:44,846 --> 00:24:53,529
Unfortunately, if you're in that sort of situation, if you're in the hands of a good
doctor like I was, relief can come and come quickly for you.

359
00:24:53,549 --> 00:24:57,531
Yeah, no, it's amazing because your oxygen level was really low.

360
00:24:57,531 --> 00:24:59,732
Yeah.

361
00:24:59,772 --> 00:25:00,212
Yeah.

362
00:25:00,212 --> 00:25:05,176
It was when we first got the reading, the nurse just kind of looked and she actually

363
00:25:05,176 --> 00:25:07,687
She's like, let me test your other hand.

364
00:25:08,207 --> 00:25:10,649
so she tested my other hand and it came back the same.

365
00:25:10,649 --> 00:25:14,570
And then she, that's when she went and got the doctor who then retested it.

366
00:25:14,570 --> 00:25:18,432
And they're like, yeah, you need to go to the emergency room immediately.

367
00:25:18,432 --> 00:25:19,173
Yeah.

368
00:25:19,173 --> 00:25:28,187
Now, when you said 72%, I was like, my gosh, you know, because we all tend to male or
female put things off and not listen to our body enough.

369
00:25:28,187 --> 00:25:30,850
And you were like, you know, something seems off.

370
00:25:30,850 --> 00:25:31,991
get it checked out.

371
00:25:31,991 --> 00:25:38,174
We really want people to do that and to be able to advocate for themselves to say, hey,
could it be a blood clot?

372
00:25:38,174 --> 00:25:39,375
Can I get checked for it?

373
00:25:39,375 --> 00:25:41,496
And then it gets worse and worse and worse.

374
00:25:41,496 --> 00:25:45,058
And the outcome is then substantially worse or they die from it.

375
00:25:45,058 --> 00:25:47,539
So it's great encouragement for people.

376
00:25:47,539 --> 00:25:48,029
Yeah.

377
00:25:48,029 --> 00:25:51,421
Well, you saw my story that ran my blood doctor, Dr.

378
00:25:51,421 --> 00:25:53,823
Kingsley here in town, who's awesome.

379
00:25:53,823 --> 00:25:59,946
You know, one of the things he said, one of the early symptoms of blood clots is instant
death.

380
00:26:00,238 --> 00:26:01,898
You get no warning at all.

381
00:26:01,898 --> 00:26:02,958
a third of the people.

382
00:26:02,958 --> 00:26:03,198
Yeah.

383
00:26:03,198 --> 00:26:04,678
You're just here and then you're gone.

384
00:26:04,678 --> 00:26:05,998
Just like that.

385
00:26:06,178 --> 00:26:14,518
and also for people who suffer, you know, significant injuries, like I did the torn
Achilles, I didn't think of, oh, I could develop blood clots from this.

386
00:26:14,518 --> 00:26:17,638
So anybody who suffers significant injuries.

387
00:26:18,218 --> 00:26:19,838
We had a weird year at our TV station.

388
00:26:19,838 --> 00:26:21,718
We had a lot of guys getting injured.

389
00:26:21,718 --> 00:26:26,998
Another guy broke his foot and I saw him and I was like, I was like, Hey, did you hear?

390
00:26:26,998 --> 00:26:28,518
And this was before my story ran.

391
00:26:28,518 --> 00:26:29,976
I was like, Hey, did you hear what happened?

392
00:26:29,976 --> 00:26:30,747
to me.

393
00:26:30,747 --> 00:26:40,595
He's like, no, what I told him because you know, again, another guy had no idea had broken
his foot wasn't really doing some of the things he should have been doing.

394
00:26:40,595 --> 00:26:46,239
So I told him my story and he instantly was like, okay, he's like, good to know.

395
00:26:46,239 --> 00:26:48,081
I'm glad to he didn't know.

396
00:26:48,081 --> 00:26:50,573
There's a senator in Delaware.

397
00:26:50,573 --> 00:26:53,065
Her name is Lisa Blunt Rochester.

398
00:26:53,225 --> 00:26:56,388
And her husband Charles actually died.

399
00:26:56,388 --> 00:26:59,390
He had torn his Achilles playing basketball.

400
00:26:59,542 --> 00:27:02,543
He ended up getting a pulmonary embolism and he passed away from it.

401
00:27:02,543 --> 00:27:05,084
think it was 50 or early 50s.

402
00:27:05,084 --> 00:27:16,417
And she has actually introduced legislation to try to make Congress aware of this because
there's absolutely zero dedicated federal funding for block clot education and awareness.

403
00:27:16,417 --> 00:27:24,669
It's one of the things that the National Block Clot Alliance is working on really hard to
make people aware of this because the majority of this is preventable.

404
00:27:24,669 --> 00:27:27,370
Somebody shouldn't be dying every six minutes from this in this country.

405
00:27:27,370 --> 00:27:28,910
Like we're better than that.

406
00:27:28,910 --> 00:27:33,130
But we need funding so that we can actually raise awareness and help people.

407
00:27:34,350 --> 00:27:38,870
didn't make it, you did, thankfully, but this is no joke.

408
00:27:39,150 --> 00:27:47,730
No, I don't know if you heard, I was talking before that the actress that played Wonder
Woman just came out in the news that she had a blood clot in her brain.

409
00:27:48,010 --> 00:27:51,590
Serena Williams, tennis star, had a blood clot.

410
00:27:51,590 --> 00:27:56,530
I actually listened to your guys' most previous podcast about the college football player.

411
00:27:56,550 --> 00:27:58,370
Like just absolutely...

412
00:27:58,370 --> 00:27:59,390
gutting.

413
00:27:59,611 --> 00:28:02,702
you know, now I'm hyper aware of blood clots.

414
00:28:02,702 --> 00:28:08,594
Whereas before, unless it was a big star, like, like someone like that, I wouldn't even
have got my attention.

415
00:28:08,594 --> 00:28:18,310
So yeah, the fact that there's, there's really almost no awareness of this, and just how
prevalent it is, and how potentially fatal it is.

416
00:28:18,310 --> 00:28:19,949
I even asked my blood doctor, Dr.

417
00:28:19,949 --> 00:28:24,601
Kingsley, why that is, and he's like, I don't know, like he's frustrated by it, too.

418
00:28:24,681 --> 00:28:28,052
So that's why it's it's so great, you guys are doing what you're doing.

419
00:28:28,258 --> 00:28:30,319
to try to help spread the word.

420
00:28:30,400 --> 00:28:32,191
And you for helping us do that.

421
00:28:32,191 --> 00:28:34,223
mean, March is BlunkBot Awareness Month.

422
00:28:34,223 --> 00:28:37,395
We're really trying to raise awareness as much as possible.

423
00:28:37,395 --> 00:28:42,009
I would love to have you join us in that initiative as well to get the word out.

424
00:28:42,009 --> 00:28:42,570
Sure.

425
00:28:42,570 --> 00:28:44,521
And you have a platform.

426
00:28:44,521 --> 00:28:50,816
And I applaud you for using your platform and sharing your story because not everybody
would.

427
00:28:50,816 --> 00:28:53,018
Dave, honestly, this will save lives.

428
00:28:53,018 --> 00:28:53,739
Yeah.

429
00:28:53,739 --> 00:28:57,882
Well, and it's sad that that's the case.

430
00:28:58,008 --> 00:29:01,740
we're at this point, but you got to start somewhere.

431
00:29:01,740 --> 00:29:07,783
And people like you and others who have been affected by this and want to do something
about it.

432
00:29:07,803 --> 00:29:08,744
It's inspiring.

433
00:29:08,744 --> 00:29:16,588
And the fact that it does affect so many people, I would think this is a cause that a lot
of people would jump on board with.

434
00:29:17,149 --> 00:29:18,209
I hope you're right.

435
00:29:18,209 --> 00:29:19,640
I hope you're right.

436
00:29:19,640 --> 00:29:26,453
We're going to give it the old college try and really blaze some trails here because like
I said, nobody should be dying from this.

437
00:29:26,674 --> 00:29:27,338
Yeah.

438
00:29:27,338 --> 00:29:29,240
Absolutely, absolutely.

439
00:29:29,240 --> 00:29:39,646
And one of the things that bothers my wife is when I tore my Achilles, there was no talk
of blood clots from my doctors on that end of things.

440
00:29:39,727 --> 00:29:41,718
And I don't know if it's connected or not.

441
00:29:41,718 --> 00:29:53,537
But I remember one time I was just doing a checkup probably two to three weeks after I
tore my Achilles and the guy was squeezing my calf and it hurt really bad.

442
00:29:53,537 --> 00:29:55,428
And I was even I was like,

443
00:29:55,566 --> 00:29:56,546
And he's like, that hurt.

444
00:29:56,546 --> 00:29:57,586
I'm like, yeah.

445
00:29:57,586 --> 00:30:00,926
Now I know, oh crap, that's probably a blood clot.

446
00:30:01,066 --> 00:30:05,506
At the time I didn't, and it didn't raise a red flag with them.

447
00:30:05,786 --> 00:30:16,046
So I just wish on that side of things, there was more education as well to be more aware
of that because, you know, if they had put me on maybe some blood thinners or some baby

448
00:30:16,046 --> 00:30:23,756
aspirin or what things I know now, maybe I could have done that right away and would have
avoided what ended up happening.

449
00:30:23,756 --> 00:30:24,126
Right.

450
00:30:24,126 --> 00:30:25,117
No, I think you're right.

451
00:30:25,117 --> 00:30:31,899
And for some reason we need to do a better job educating some orthopedic people because we
unfortunately see this a lot.

452
00:30:31,899 --> 00:30:39,392
And like I said before, Senator Blount Rochester's husband was a casualty from this and
also could have been avoided.

453
00:30:41,133 --> 00:30:43,454
Dave, I want to thank you for joining us here today.

454
00:30:43,454 --> 00:30:45,975
Your story was incredible.

455
00:30:45,975 --> 00:30:47,126
It was riveting.

456
00:30:47,126 --> 00:30:49,456
I am so thankful that you're here.

457
00:30:49,797 --> 00:30:51,818
A giant virtual hug to your wife.

458
00:30:51,818 --> 00:30:52,918
Awesome.

459
00:30:54,177 --> 00:30:55,798
I'm looking forward to meeting her.

460
00:30:55,798 --> 00:30:58,738
She played an incredible role in all of this.

461
00:30:58,738 --> 00:31:04,618
honestly, like at some point in time, the two of you telling the story together, I think
would be doubly impactful.

462
00:31:04,618 --> 00:31:09,298
So we're thankful to her as well, but we're incredibly thankful for you sharing today.

463
00:31:09,298 --> 00:31:10,398
It means a lot.

464
00:31:10,398 --> 00:31:12,778
Like I said before, it will save lives.

465
00:31:12,778 --> 00:31:18,058
Well, thank you guys for having me and thank you for the work that you guys are doing that
is not being done enough.

466
00:31:21,048 --> 00:31:27,460
We want to thank Dave one more time for sharing his experience as a blood clot survivor
with us here today.

467
00:31:27,660 --> 00:31:29,781
A special thank you to the wonderful Dr.

468
00:31:29,781 --> 00:31:33,121
Mike Knox for his insight and expertise.

469
00:31:33,242 --> 00:31:38,383
Thank you for joining us here today on another episode of Taking a Breath.

470
00:31:38,503 --> 00:31:45,565
For more information on risk prevention and community, please visit stoptheclot.org.

471
00:31:46,105 --> 00:31:49,208
We know the patient because we are the patient.

472
00:31:49,208 --> 00:31:53,789
Together with listeners like you, we can collectively stop the clock.

473
00:31:58,754 --> 00:32:01,677
another Everything Podcast production.

474
00:32:03,060 --> 00:32:07,706
Visit everythingpodcast.com, a division of Patterson Media.

475
00:32:07,706 --> 00:32:10,349
Subscribe wherever you get your podcast.