PULMONARY EMBOLISM

Abstract

An operation in which the patient has weathered all other hazards, a fracture that is healing satisfactorily, a puerperium in which all appears to go well, a thrombophlebitis in which the patient is well on the way to recovery or a minor sprain or bruise may be the setting for death from pulmonary embolism. The great tragedy of such a death is that in almost every such case the accident of pulmonary embolism was the sole barrier that stood between the patient and recovery. Its sudden and unpredictable occurrence comes as a terrible shock to the relatives of the patient and his physician and robs the physician of a well earned and successful result. And for every fatal attack there occur two or three instances of nonfatal seizures attended by grave apprehension for the patient's life; meanwhile the physician looks on, distressingly limited in his power to prevent a subsequent,