A bolt from the blue

A 30-years-old gentleman, a bachelor, was devoted to physical fitness and was in the gym, working out every day of the week, for several hours. So he did not think much of a swelling that appeared one day on the left side of the groin; he thought he had pulled a muscle.

But when he suddenly developed chest pain, breathlessness, a seizure and lost consciousness his family was alarmed. Subsequently, he went into cardiac arrest. On arrival at Kauvery hospital, a team of Emergency Medicine, Cardiology, Radiology and Critical care staff swung into action to revive, stabilize and investigate him.

CT Pulmonary Angiography confirmed the diagnosis as Acute Pulmonary Embolism and massive blood clots were observed in the pulmonary artery, the artery that carries blood to the lungs. The clots were dissolved with clot busters. He had a stormy recovery period in the ICU; he was drowsy, memory was impaired, heart beats were irregular and body salts and blood gases were unstable. But he sailed out of the turbulent seas with very thorough Critical Care management.

It was a puzzle why and how did this young, physically active man, with an ideal body weight, healthy life style and no known chronic diseases developed Pulmonary Embolism.

The swelling in the left groin was investigated and was detected to be a tumor and not just a muscle injury. A biopsy indicated the diagnosis to be Sarcoma, a very rapidly growing muscle tumor. He is now undergoing treatment for the same but is otherwise well and is back to his normal life and work.

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