I suffered a pulmonary embolism on a plane due to my birth control... here's how

Daily Mail​

6 hours ago

A woman has shared a cautionary tale after suffering a near-death experience on a long-haul flight - saying it was due to the type of birth control she was on.
Emily, 33, was flying from Toronto to Dubai when she started feeling sick, noting she only stood up in the final few hours of the flight, which is typically around 13 hours long, when she realized something was terribly wrong.
'Flying while on birth control? Make sure you get up and move on your flight or you could suffer a cardiac arrest like I did,' Emily said in a now-viral video where she shared her story.
'With two-and-a-half hours left in the flight I had to get up and go to the bathroom,' she continued, noting it was the first time she had gotten up since they left Toronto.
Emily said when she got to the bathroom the door was locked - something which she says saved her life.
'I was waiting for the bathroom and I got this real, deep, dull aching pain in my chest out of nowhere, and I coughed three times and that was the last thing I remember,' she recalled.
'I was unconscious for five minutes. I fell, I collapsed, I hit my head, [I had] a huge black eye [and] I was unconscious for five minutes,' Emily explained.
'I had a near death experience [and] thank God there was a doctor on board and some very amazing, competent flight attendants who essentially saved my life,' the mom gushed.
'They gave me an oxygen tank, carried me to business class, laid me down and I was vomiting profusely, sweating, they took extremely good care of me.'
Emily was suffering from a 'massive' bilateral saddle pulmonary embolism, which is a blood clot in both of her lungs.
'This typically causes most people to die instantly or they die in the first one to two hours, generally over six hours without treatment then zero percent chance of survival,' she shared.
Emily was taken to the hospital six-and-a-half hours after she collapsed, because there was still two-and-a-half left of the flight. After they landed, they took her to the airport clinic for about three hours.
'I got to the hospital where they ran tests to diagnose me, brain scans and all the blood work - and that's when I realized I had an extreme life threatening blood clot that was affecting both my lungs and it was essentially a miracle that I'm still alive,' she said.
Emily was hospitalized for six days after receiving treatment in Dubai and is now still recovering from her ordeal.
'My PSA of this whole story why this blood clot happened to me - an otherwise perfectly healthy 33-year-old woman,' she warned.
'The doctors believe [it was] because I wasn't moving on my flight - so please get up and move on your flights,' she urged.
Emily shared that she was on estrogen birth control at the time, which she said increases the risk of developing a blood clot.
'I didn't really understand what that meant until now but if you are on estrogen birth control or if you are doing hormone therapy for perimenopause/menopause please just talk to your doctor because the estrogen is a huge blood clot risk from what I've learned, on top of not moving on the flight,' she shared.
Emily also said she was wearing compression stockings for the very first time during the flight, which she had perfectly measured at a vascular clinic.
'[It was] my first time wearing them, so if you're wearing compression stockings and not moving on your flights it's actually detrimental because it cuts off your blood flow - [especially] if you're seated in an economy class for an extended period of time,' she concluded the video.
According to Dr Pallavi Bradshaw, estrogen can increase the chance of clotting in the blood, leading to the formation of clots.
'Although the risk is relatively small, affecting just 1 in 1,000, it is important to manage the risks, especially when traveling long distances,' she told DailyMail.com.
'Traveling for longer than four hours, whether that's by plane, car, train or other modes of transport, increases your chances of blood clots,' Dr. Bradshaw shared.
She recommended moving regularly, drinking water, wearing loose clothing, and avoiding restricted seating positions.
'Whilst on a long flight, it can be easy to get comfortable and not want to disturb the people next to you, especially when you have the window seat. However, moving around to increase your blood circulation is incredibly important for preventing a clot,' she recommends.
'Aim to get up and walk around every one to two hours and stretch out your legs when seated. This could include rolling your ankles, along with flexing and extending your calves to keep the blood flow in your lower legs pumping.'
She added that wearing tight or restrictive clothing whilst flying long-haul can decrease blood flow, so instead opt for comfortable and loose clothes that allow circulation to flow.
'When you're dehydrated, your blood becomes thicker, so make sure to drink plenty of water on your flight,' she added. 'Also, try to avoid or reduce alcohol and caffeine consumption as much as possible, as these drinks can dehydrate you.'
Dr. Bradshaw also recommends talking or a medical professional before traveling to properly understand the risks involved.
According to Stop The Clot, for the average woman taking birth control pills, the absolute risk of a blood clot is still small with only one in 3,000 women per year who are taking birth control pills will develop a blood clot.