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Comment by jungletime | Hacker News Reader

My cousin (mid 40s) developed blood clots in his legs from a long flight to Europe. The clots passed through his heart, and lodged in his lungs. He's alive, but struggles for every breath he takes. Yeah, we need an honest study, and subsequent class lawsuit.

These cramped seats/long flights probably kill quite a few people.

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To whomever downvoted this, DVT is absolutely a real thing and absolutely life threatening. Your heart doesn't have the pumping capacity to pump blood out of your lower legs so your body is designed to use calf muscle expansion and contraction to move the blood. If you sit idle for many hours the blood pools in your lower legs and your chance of a quite literally life threatening blood clot skyrockets. If you develop such a clot and get on anti clotting meds in time you'll probably be on them for the rest of your life. Voice of experience here. Getting up and walking around on a long flight is a really good idea. Can also happen to those who camp out in a chair without moving for 8 hour gaming or coding sessions.

We certainly shouldn't be packing the airplane so full for longer flights. There's not even room to bounce your leg on most flights.

You can flex your leg muscles without moving your legs. I wonder if this is enough to pump your blood around and if every hour there should be an alert telling you to do this.

From: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/deep-vein-thr...

> Avoid sitting still. If you have had surgery or have been on bed rest for other reasons, try to get moving as soon as possible. If you're sitting for a while, don't cross your legs, which can hamper blood flow. If you're traveling a long distance by car, stop every hour or so and walk around.

If you're on a plane, stand or walk occasionally. If you can't do that, exercise your lower legs. Try raising and lowering your heels while keeping your toes on the floor, then raising your toes with your heels are on the floor.

Getting up and walking around is a good idea. I also take an aspirin before flying long haul.

I grew up flying from San Diego to Singapore and learned by watching others to get up, walk around, and stretch. I recently took Southwest's 6 hour flight to Maui and the flight attendants made an announcement discouraging "aisle aerobics". I guess on their tiny single aisle 737s it causes too much congestion.

I'm a doctor, but maybe not in the same country as you. I'd be surprised if doctors in your country put people on permanent anticoagulation just because of a DVT with a known trigger of a long flight.

1 point by 2rsf 2 hours ago | parent [-] | on: The World's First 20-Hour Airline Flight

> To whomever downvoted this I haven't downvoted, but I'm having problems with the last sentence

> we need an honest study, and subsequent class lawsuit.

Honest stud exist for many years [0] and it's common knowledge in every tourist guide [1].

Class lawsuit is a very American thing, let's sue everyone regardless of proof or if the condition can be avoided by the persons themselves.

Even the link between flight and DVT is not 100% clear [2], although there seems to be a good mechanism explaining it:

> not all experts agree that air travel is a direct cause of thrombosis due to a lack of large-scale population studies. Such studies are difficult to evaluate, in that the extended period between flight time and presentation of DVT or PE symptoms induces variability.

The conclusion of this [3] research is somewhat disturbing:

> Moreover, given the low incidence of DVT in the general population we may never know if air travel increases the risk of DVT because studies with the required sample size to detect a significantly increased risk are unlikely to be sponsored.

[0] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1989755/ [1] https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/travel.html [2] https://www.stoptheclot.org/learn_more/air_travel_and_thromb.... [3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC434500/

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) from long flights is well known risk. There is nobody to sue.

https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/dvt/travel.html

Happened to a family member of mine as well. After a long flight, they ended up going to ER for a few days to deal with the clots, and was put on blood thinners for the rest of their life.

My mom (60's) also developed blood clots on a long flight. Luckily it was caught and dealt with before they managed to cause any long-lasting damage.

Out of curiosity, how do they handle blood clots?

Anticoagulation normally, six months of pills or injections for the first vein clot (deep vein thrombosis or DVT) and then lifelong if you develop another one. If the clot travels to your lung and is big enough it can kill you (pulmonary embolism). For big life threatening clots to the lung there are invasive procedures to suck them out but these are risky.

My father has DVT and it's the reason he can't ever visit me on the other side of the planet. He'd have to go to a doctor to get a shot to thin his blood or something like this otherwise he's running danger of exactly what you're describing.

I personally got these leg assisting stockings that my doctor told me to use in long haul flights, and carry aspiring with me to thin my blood. I also try to regularly stand up and walk around

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