[Destro]

Could it also be from sitting prone in a combat vehicle for hours on end? (Like the cases that arise from long plane rides)

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[Paleo Conservative]

Could it also be from sitting prone in a combat vehicle for hours on end? (Like the cases that arise from long plane rides)

Or David Bloom?

[U S Army EOD]

No we did that since WWII plus you don't hear about people dying much from ridding in aircraft or sitting at their desk on a computer.

Something is wrong and they need to look for what these soldiers have in common such as where they have been and what shots they take, etc.

[ntnychik]

We used to have to get smallpox shots to go to Kindergarten, and again to go to college. I don't recall any news of people dying of blood clots from the vaccinations. Then again we didn't have 24/7 panic-stricken news.

[Lijahsbubbe]

If I recall, the heat and dehydration have something to do with the clotting.

[PurVirgo]

I believe you're talking about Deep Veinous Thrombosis - a potentially fatal condition that goes often undetected until too late.

Results from a clump of fat (thrumbus) detaching from an occluded blood vessel, then getting lodged in the lungs, where it becomes an embolus. Thing is, a vessel does not necessarily have to be obstucted to the point where major problems arise.

I believe Olympic Skater Tara Lipinski had problems with it, and she is certainly not a textbook case of bad health.

For some reason, sitting for a long time (like in an airplane or road trip) can dislodge a clot.

[TheAngryClam]

Ever read "The Andromeda Strain," by chance?

[piasa]

"I would say that that number of cases (blood clot deaths) among young healthy troops would seem to be unusual," said Dr. Jeffrey Sartin, an infectious diseases doctor at the Gundersen Clinic in La Crosse, Wis.

My oh my, I just had one of those feelings and decided to plug in the name "Dr. Jeffrey Sartin" with Red Flags Weekly's "Dr. Meryle Nass" and whaddaya know, they turn up together!

Dr. Nass belongs to an obscure group which violated the sanctions on Iraq,, seems like they were called "doctors and nurses for responsibility and peace" or some such thing; she also had a tour in Cuba, and evidently in Rhodesia as well allegedly in the med field. We have to take her word for it on this. She is the author of a report (not a medical paper though some played as if it were) of a cutaneous anthrax outbreak in Africa. (Not inhalation anthrax.) The report never made it into any medical journals and its play was limited to the fine communist webzine "Red Flags Weekly" and other lefty sites which picked it up after some sources fingered Hatfill. (You must be a member of DU to appreciate Red Flag's op eds, I suppose.)

Nass had spent some time aiding protesters who were up in arms over US tritium production among other things, in the 90s. Depleted uranium and all that.

The intent of Nass and Rosenberg is to shut down US military research into biowarfare defense. So i is never a shcok to see people in the same circles as Nass, old protester that she was, still at it.

[LadyDoc]

dehydration and sitting without moving make one prone to blood clots.

For example, the BBC had a couple health columns last year about long airline flights and blood clots.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/1886083.stm

One way to decrease the risk would be to have all soldiers take an aspirin every day. However, if they were shot or in a car wreck, taking an aspirin would increase the amount of bleeding from wounds, and so it would probably kill more people than prevent deaths from DVT

If you are sitting, support stockings (TED hose) also prevent clots, and I usually wear them on long flights. However, they are hot and uncomfortable, and if you bend your knees they wrinkle. So again not practical for combat. But helpful on long flights.

[Fred Mertz]

The UPI investigation found 17 soldiers who died of sudden illnesses.

With 17 cases I would assume they'd have found the common cause. I expect it's those anthrax shots, so they can't publicly say so.

[aristeides]

Something for your data banks?

[aristeides]

You're interested in Bioport, El Hibri, and Adm. Crowe, aren't you?

[archy]

Could it also be from sitting prone in a combat vehicle for hours on end? (Like the cases that arise from long plane rides)

That's *Orthostatic hypotension* common in tank crews who sit for extended periods, then get out of the vehicle and stretch, their blood flows back into the extremities, particularly legs that have had the circulation cut off, and as a result, the supply of blood to the brain is lessened, and they zonk right out. It's rarely fatal, though, unless they're standing atop the back deck or on the turret and fall, that being a cause of an occasional serious injury or fatality.

Back in the 1960s, Dexamyl and other amphetimine *speed* was sometimes given to crews both as endurance-enhancing *go pills* and to kick up the blood pressure of those who'd suffered cramping or dizziness from their seated positions inside the tanks. There was a point of diminished returns, of course, especially if long term-use were to become a problem. In the event of a Soviet tank invasion of West Germany, long use of anything was not a likely problem for us.

Followup expanded UPI story FReepposted *here*.

[cookcounty]

It would be helpful if the reporters would establish a baseline of how often these events occur in the rest of the military population.

But I'm not confident they're smart enough to figure out why that might be valuable. ---Probably it would get in the way of a "hey look at this" factor in their stories.

[XBob]

excessive stress, exercise in high heat cause dehydration and severe leg cramps. solution - quinine (like for malaria), or salt. pain/cramps go away in about 1-2 hours.