Blood clots could have killed me after flight to the States
A fitness coach has warned of the dangers of long-haul flights after a potentially-fatal health scare. Abbie Wightwick reports
FITNESS coach Kevin Ful-thorpe is used to training six days a week so was shocked to arrive in the USA on holiday and get out of breath running.
Thinking the humidity was to blame, superfit Kevin tried to put it to the back of his mind and get on with enjoying his holiday.
But unknown to the former Army and RAF personal trainer, the breathlessness was due to potentially life threatening blood clots on both his lungs.
His GP later told him that the clots had been caused by the long-haul flight he took on his trip to the US from Heathrow to Houston.
Kevin, from Cardiff, said: “It was the last thing I thought could happen to me.
“I was in the gym six days a week, eating healthily, a non-smoker, minimalist drinker, doing all the right things then a long-haul flight changed it all.”
After flying back home to the UK, Kevin felt well and carried on running fitness classes at Sport Wales in Cardiff and the RAF in St Athan for four weeks.
He said that all he noticed was slight and unusual, occasional breathlessness.
He said it was nothing to scare him enough to think he might have a potentially fatal illness.
When the breathlessness got worse Kevin saw medics at RAF St Athan, who sent him straight to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
Doctors there told the shocked fitness instructor he had blood clots on both lungs – a pulmonary embolism.
Airplane flights of four hours or more may be a risk factor for deepvein thrombosis which is caused by blood clots.
These can form when sitting still for long periods which affects the circulation of the blood.
He was admitted to hospital for four days and put on life-saving blood-thinning drugs.
“The frightening thing is that it can kill you, but I don’t know why it didn’t. I don’t know if you are more fit you are more likely to get over it.
“It was a shock when I was diagnosed. It was the last thing I expected. It was very frightening.
“It can affect your heart and you can go into respiratory attack.
“My doctor told me it was caused by the long-haul flight. I had had a deep vein thrombosis in my calf which had moved to my lungs.”
Kevin said he had even taken precautions against DVT on the flight by wearing special flight socks, drinking plenty of water and trying to move about as much as possible. But he said delays had added to the time he was immobile in the air.
“It was a 10-hour flight and we were stuck on the runway for two hours and then spent a long time waiting at immigration in the US in a queue – so for 16 hours I had no real movement.
“The next day we got an internal flight from Houston to Florida and I felt a bit out of breath. When we got to Florida I tried to go for a run, but didn’t feel right. I had to stop three times but just thought it was the humidity.”
A year on and Kevin, who has been going to Florida on holiday with wife Lyn for the past 14 years, said he is now too scared to take another longhaul flight.
“We had booked to go again this year, but I cancelled. I don’t want to chance it. I think a lot of people don’t realise the risks of long-haul flights. People should take it more seriously.
“When I was in hospital for four days on blood thinners, one of the doctors told me I should have been in resuscitation, but maybe being fit helps. The GP said within six weeks the clots begin to disperse and I was told I’d make a full recovery. I don’t have the clots now but there may be scar tissue.”
Kevin, 65, is now fully recovered. He still teaches circuits and boxercise at Sport Wales, but has retired from RAF St Athan.
A first-aid trainer for the Football Association Wales and British Boxing, the father-of-four and grandfather-of-six has worked with famous names from boxing legend Frank Bruno to former Wales international footballer Robert Earnshaw.
Kevin said: “I don’t know whether being fit hides symptoms but it just proves you can get over these things.”