Patient Stories

My blood clot experience started with an intense fever and headache that lasted five days before I was hospitalized. On July 26, 2023, I was leading a work call when I suddenly became unable to pronounce the words on my computer screen. My girlfriend and our housemate took me to the emergency room, and as…

It started as a sharp pain in my leg when I walked. I thought it was from my shoes, or maybe I had bruised my foot at some point. After about a month of these symptoms, my other leg started to swell and turn red. My wife, who is a nurse, and my doctor both…

I played soccer for 20 years until January 2023, when I had a muscle rupture in my thigh, which kept me away from training and matches. At the end of April, I had a throat infection. Within a few days, I was experiencing shortness of breath and felt tired after taking a few steps, but…

I woke up one morning in 1978 to find that my right leg was swollen to twice its size. I called my doctor, who told me to come in immediately. He pressed his thumb into my ankle and created a ½-inch dent to show me how swollen I was and sent me to the hospital.…

I was nine weeks pregnant when I woke up on Dec. 24, 2022 with a pain in my back that radiated to my right side, under my ribs. The pain intensified in the evening and I had shortness of breath. At the ER, I was dismissed as having back pain and given pain medications. Six…

I started to feel pain under my left shoulder blade and thought I had pulled a muscle. I iced it and it started to feel better. But the next day, I woke up feeling worse. The pain had expanded around my rib cage on both sides, making it challenging to breathe. I went to work…

After walking up five flights of stairs to a friend’s Manhattan apartment, I rested at the top of the staircase. It took me almost 15 minutes to gain control of my breathing. I chalked it up to the extra pounds I had gained. A few days later, my bottom lower right extremity began to swell…

On May 22, 2022, I woke up and had breakfast with my family. As I was getting ready for my day, I felt dizzy and weak, then I fainted. When I woke up, I projectile vomited.   I eventually made it to the shower. When I got out, I was still feeling weak and dizzy. The…

In March 2019, I was recovering from a broken ankle when I began experiencing odd, unfamiliar symptoms, like shortness of breath and back pain. I thought it was anxiety.   My husband picked me up from work one day, and the second I got in his car, I couldn’t breathe, then I passed out. When he…

During my first pregnancy, I had been feeling faint. Soon after, I started getting headaches with flashing black dots in my eyes.  My midwife had told me that my blood pressure was higher than it should be, and that if I got any painful headaches and started seeing black dots, I should go straight to…