Economy class syndrome

If you’ve recently been on a long plane trip more than five hours and have shortness of breath, you could easily have pulmonary embolisms (blood clots in the lungs). This potentially fatal condition was diagnosed in my husband, John, during a one-week interval after a flight from Shannon, Ireland, to Newark, New Jersey, in March ’07.

No, the sudden shortness of breath in this daily 2-mile jogger for 40 years was not caused by flu (which cleared up) or by heart problems (identical EKG from six months previous), and he had a clear echocardiogram. However, he failed the stress test immediately, so a CT scan was ordered, one which showed multiple pulmonary embolisms.

Immediate emergency treatment with Lovenox injections and Coumadin tablets (blood thinners) ensued, with CT scans to seek occult tumors in stomach or leg sites as origins of the clots. Negative. Treatment will be approximately six months of Coumadin.

Exercising the leg muscles on extended flights or car trips should be everyone’s regimen: circling ankles, clenching buttocks and walking the aisles. These exercises were outlined for us by a pulmonologist to prevent pulmonary embolisms.

My husband dodged the bullet we never saw coming.

ELLEN EDDY

Short Hills, NJ