Is it Covid or Clot?

Vanessa Chalmers, Digital Health Reporter

DEADLY blood clots are being mistaken for Covid , doctors have warned.

Some of the symptoms of a blood clod, including breathlessness and blackouts, are wrongly being blamed on Coronavirus.

Therefore, patients with potentially life threatening blood clots are not receiving the treatment they need.

The warning comes from the charity Thrombosis UK, which fears there have been avoidable deaths as a result of misdiagnosed Covid.

The charity says it has received repeated reports of patients with recognisable blood clot symptoms who have been advised their symptoms are most likely caused by Covid-19. As a result, many of these patients have only been correctly diagnosed with blood clots at a life-critical stage or, tragically, after death. What is a blood clot? Blood clots - medically called venous thromboembolism - is a condition in which a blood clot forms in the deep veins. Usually it happens in the veins of the legs, known as "deep vein thrombosis" DVT. This can cause pain and occasionally swelling. Sometimes clots can break away and travel through the body to block the arteries to the lungs, known as pulmonary embolism or PE, which if large enough can be life-threatening. They can cause multiple symptoms including leg pain and swelling, chest pain, and shortness of breath. It is estimated that there are at least 70,000 events diagnosed in the UK annually with many ending in tragedy. A DVT is more likely to happen if you:

• are over 60

• are overweight

• smoke

• have had DVT before

• take the contraceptive pill or HRT

• have cancer or heart failure

• have varicose veins

There are also some temporary situations when you're at more risk of DVT. These include if you:

• are staying in or recently left hospital – especially if you cannot move around much (like after an operation)

• are confined to bed

• go on a long journey (more than 3 hours) by plane, car or train

• are pregnant or if you've had a baby in the previous 6 weeks

• are dehydrated

Sometimes DVT can happen for no obvious reason. Find out more information from theNHS or Thrombosis UK. On top of this, it's feared blood clots - which can occur at any age - are becoming more common as a result of the pandemic. One of the biggest risk factors for a blood clot is lack of activity and long periods of sitting - and lockdown have driven people to spend hours of the day relaxing indoors. Professor Beverley Hunt OBE said she has seen an increase in the number of people turning up at hospital with a dangerous blood clot. Prof Hunt, Thrombosis UK Medical Director, said: “With an increase in telephone and e-consultation, we fear that health care professionals aren’t carrying out all the necessary investigations and tragically people are dying of undiagnosed blood clots as a result. “Knowing all the symptoms of blood clots and COVID-19 is the first step to avoiding this unnecessary loss of life.” DIAGNOSIS TOO LATE Bereaved families have told Thrombosis UK that loved ones were advised to have a Covid test despite many of their symptoms having no link to Covid-19. When test results returned as negative and the symptoms persisted, Covid-19 was still suspected as being the cause, families say. It means they did not get the treatment they needed early, which could have prevented their death. It is estimated that there are at least 70,000 blood clots events are diagnosed in the UK every year. Blood clots are involved with one in four deaths globally, Thrombosis UK reports. Most cases are in hospital patients, who are bedridden.