A Guy Died on My Flight Back from Korea

way to help out

who da hell cares about someone travelling in cattle car dying? not me.

cattle car travel will do that to you. you are just lucky you are not the one who kicked the bucket.

hamorama wrote:

This makes sense wrote:

I do think it's important to wear compression socks/sleeves during a long flight.

Agree. This what compression socks were designed for and makes me wonder why anyone would wear them when running. When heart is pumping during running, there is no risk of blood pooling. In fact, wouldn't compression socks inhibit blood flow to the calves where you would want it?.

Not unless you think you have more of a benefit when the blood pooling goes quicker to the heart when you compress the lower extremeties. Right? Otherwise, I dont see a problem either way. I just know if it is cold outside, it certainly helps keep the calves warm...:)

These days, if I am traveling in economy on a flight of 2 hours or more, I usually wear compression socks AND my underarmour "recharge" tights. I feel so much better once I get to my destination and go for a run.

Precious Roy wrote:

DVT is a much bigger risk than the airlines would like people to know. Viktor Rothlin got thrombosis on a long distance flight and his running has never been the same since. Distance runners are at a higher risk because they have slower heart rates that allow blood to accumulate in arteries. If you are on a flight that lasts more than 2 hours, you need to wear compression socks and make your self get up every hour and walk around.

Na, compression socks are probably overkill. Hydrate before and during the flight and get up and move around. Don't just sit there. This is probably enough to prevent clots unless one has a genetic tendancy etc etc.

I have met two people who have been hospitalized with DVTs from long flights. One was on the way to Australia---met him on his flight back to the US. The other was a guy who had flown back from China.

Middle seats in both cases, never got up to walk around. Both were also in their 60s.

666EnergyDrink wrote:

These days, if I am traveling in economy on a flight of 2 hours or more, I usually wear compression socks AND my underarmour "recharge" tights. I feel so much better once I get to my destination and go for a run.

wuss.

you prob. look like such a poser.

What about people who work sitting all day? Are the risks similar?

I know you are supposed to get up and walk around the office a couple minutes every hour but that's easier said than done.

Sometimes when I'm at my computer, I will get so involved in what I'm coding that I forget time for hours. My quads will sometimes get a bit stiff because they are slightly tensed in the sitting position.

I was flying back to Cinci from Salt lake last year and a guy in the last seat by the bathrooms died. He was VERY large and I'm guessing he dies from a heart attack. Unfortunately they had to drag him off the plane because they could not carry him. They did this before they would let anyone else off. Very weird situation.

A baby aspirin is a smaller dose (81 mg vs. 325 mg). Neither are that protective against a deep vein thrombosis/pulmonary embolus. Stay hydrated and get up and walk around a lot and you should be fine, unless you have had a prior DVT or have family members with them or have cancer.

Very unlikely that this was a pulmonary embolism as massive bleeding is an extremely unusual presentation for this; I have seen many, many pulmonary emboli and sometimes people cough up blood but never anything like you described. More likely it was some kind of upper gastrointestinal bleeding where that kind of bleeding is common. As to your question of whether a deep vein thrombosis could kill someone on a plane, it could. Usually when people with a massive pulmonary embolism die it is fairly suddenly from cardiac arrest.

I was on a flight when the flight attendant came to ask us for drinks...the kid next to me (maybe high school, college freshman) his eyes roll back in his head...the flight attendant is like, "sir, sir." He is just like passed out...turning blue. Calls for medical, gets a doc. The doc gets him up and they get him some water, which helps. Through out the whole flight, I feel like he is going in and out. So strange! The doctor tells him he should go to the ER once the flight hits the ground.