Doctors removed an 8-inch blood clot from a 64-year-old man’s lung and discovered it had formed into the shape of his airways.
The huge clot was removed on the end of a breathing tube that had been inserted in the patient’s lung.
Unfortunately, the elderly man became critically ill and passed away while he was in the hospital.
Doctors revealed the patient’s illness in a case report and said that the man had arrived at a London hospital complaining of fever, back pain and a general feeling of sickness.
Medics noticed he had extremely low blood pressure and his lungs were failing so he was taken to the intensive care.
Scans then revealed that the elderly man had a pulmonary embolism or a blood clot in the lungs. He also had fluid accumulating in the membranes which surround the lungs.
Doctors removed a ‘large volume’ of fluids and drained his chest but a few minutes later he started coughing up blood.
A bronchoscopy showed that there was a ‘large pale blood clot’ stuck to the breathing tube a medic had put in his lung to help him breathe.
“Despite multiple attempts, this could not be removed by suction,” the medics, led by Dr. Charles Coughlan, wrote in the journal BMJ Case Reports.
Doctors sedated and paralyzed the elderly man and pulled out the breathing tube to remove the blood cloth, which measured 7.8inches or 20cm long. It was also shaped like the inside of a lung.
The patient’s breathing improved but medics said that he remained critically ill.
Tests revealed that the man, who had a heart valve replacement, was also suffering from septic shock, bowel cancer, a bacterial infection, MRSA, and an infection in his heart tissue.
The man was so ill that doctors decided not to operate on him anymore. With the permission of his family, they turned his life support off.
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Replaced!