Mystery blood clots felling U.S. troops

United Press International ^ | Tue, 7 Oct 2003 | Mark Benjamin, UniPresser

[archy]

This is a lengthier version of a similar UniPress article with a slightly different title. I'll try to find it and post a link.

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[July 4th]

Probably from sitting in cramped humvees and tanks and not getting the chance to move around.

[mewzilla]

Not to mention dehydration. Plus, I wonder if troops are screened for heart disease, especially the older ones.

[ChemistCat]

I think we need to keep in mind the FACT that in any large group of people, there are going to be deaths from many causes, and there will be unexplained clusters of certain diseases in any group too.

If all the soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines now engaged in the occupation of Iraq were home and on leave, many more would be dying of recreational/home maintenance accidents than are dying of illness or by facing enemy fire. It's a fact. Those who are worried about a serviceman or woman should bear in mind that even taking a bath in your own home isn't "safe." Our military is doing a fine job of limiting casualties under these conditions, better than we do of limiting casualties on interstates during holiday weekends.

[wardaddy]

Man, those folks need to be dosing on aspirin. I know that makes it worse if you're shot but this is all rather odd.

[GOP_Proud]

Or it could be a side effect from vaccines. I wouldn't shy away from that. It happens. I prefer to look at it as a necessary evil.

Some children die from immunizations. It doesn't mean that we should stop immunizations.

It's rare. It just seems cold hearted when your family is the unfortunate victim of that rarity. That's what makes it a headline. You can't help but feel their pain and sorrow.

If one person in a million dies because of something that was necessary for the greater good, it isn't a comfort to the family of the one that died.

[archy]

Probably from sitting in cramped humvees and tanks and not getting the chance to move around.

Doesn't sound like the case with Jeffries in Kuwait, though.

And I've known plenty of guys who overheated and dehyrdrated themselves in tanks and APCs just as cramped in Vietnam without exhibiting such conditions, though heat stroke and heat exhaustion was not at all unknown. Likewise there's plenty of experience with US troops in Saudi Arabia and on the *Bright Star* exercises in Egypt that there should have been similar occurances in those locales, had that been the cause.

"Bill just dropped. They thought he had been shot. That is how suddenly it happened," said Rose Hobby, the woman whose 39-year-old brother-in-law William Jeffries collapsed in Kuwait.

After being evacuated from Kuwait to Rota, Spain, he was in intensive care for a week before dying, Hobby said in a telephone interview from Evansville, Ind. A doctor in Spain said Jeffries had "the largest pulmonary embolism he had ever seen," Hobby said. Jeffries also had a swelling of the pancreas, often caused by heavy drinking or some drugs. Jeffries was not a drinker, Hobby said.

Jeffries was back in the United States just days before his death to attend his own father's funeral. He had a scab on his arm from his recent smallpox vaccination. Hobby said she does not know if he got anthrax shots also, like most soldiers in the region.

-archy-/-

[concerned about politics]

The Pentagon has been investigating cases of a mysterious pneumonia that has killed two soldiers and put 17 more on ventilators. Besides the pneumonia, there do not seem to be any unexpected health trends given the number of troops in the region, said Army Surgeon General spokeswoman Virginia Stephanakis.

The Bible codes say SARs will learn to mutate, too. Mutating diseases are politically correct these days. All they need is a host that carries a mutating disease to bond to.
In my opinion, we're in for a lot worse.

[archy]

Man, those folks need to be dosing on aspirin. I know that makes it worse if you're shot but this is all rather odd.

If I had been given the experimental Bioport anthrax *vaccine* I'd be eating asprin like candy.

-archy-/-

[mewzilla]

I think, though, that often times the clots that lodge in the lungs form in the legs.

[r9etb]

And I've known plenty of guys who overheated and dehyrdrated themselves in tanks and APCs just as cramped in Vietnam without exhibiting such conditions, though heat stroke and heat exhaustion was not at all unknown.

I dunno -- I think there's probably something about standing around in helmets and body armor in temps of 130+ that could probably explain a lot of this....

[2Jedismom]

Remember that reporter died from a pulmonary embolism...

[archy]

This is a lengthier version of a similar UniPress article with a slightly different title. I'll try to find it and post a link.

Here's the earlier posting of yesterday's article by Destro, Mystery blood clots kill U.S. troops.

[archy]

Remember that reporter died from a pulmonary embolism...

See the second paragraf of the story posted above:

In addition to NBC News Correspondent David Bloom, who died in April of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing south of Baghdad, the Pentagon has told families that blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died from what the military has described as non-combat-related causes.

*More on Bloom here*.

-archy-/-

[Born Conservative]

The post below may be of interest (how journalists are expected by their editors to only report deaths/injuries to US soldiers, and not report anything positive)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/995930/posts

[johnb838]

It would be interesting to know statistically how the number of PEs stack up against other conflicts, and I suppose training exercises. This being Iraq, and having prior experience with Gulf War Syndrome, I think we should be not hasty to accept NOR dismiss this question.

[archy]

I dunno -- I think there's probably something about standing around in helmets and body armor in temps of 130+ that could probably explain a lot of this....

The current *Interceptor* body armor is a LOT worse than the sleeveless/collarless M1968 flak vests we wore, about half the weight, though the Vietnam era tanker's helmet was fully enclosed and heavier than either the present issue Combat Vehicle Crewman's helmet or the Kevlar K-pot helmet that replaced the pound-and a half heavier M1 steel helmet in use since WWII. The newer armor is a lot better at stopping AK projectiles, of course: an AK round would go right through the front of a flak jacket, made for stopping shell fragments rather than bullets, and right out the second layer in back, too.

I doubt the crews inside the tanks are wearing full body armor, that makes it near-impossible to get out in a hurry. It's usually those detailed to groundpounder details or external security of their tanks so burdened. But tank crews may indeed be less used to operating in full armor outside their vehicles, and may be accounting for some, if not all, of the casualties.

[Polybius]

Probably from sitting in cramped humvees and tanks and not getting the chance to move around.

Exactly. Add getting dehydrated in the desert heat on top up that and the blood becomes even more prone to thrombosis.

In the airline business, this has the nickname "Economy Class Syndrome".

[pfflier]

Yup. Real common in airline travelers.