Doctor’s warning over common flying mistake that could kill… after woman suffered deadly lung clot on plane

A doctor has warned travelers not to stay seated for hours on long-haul flights, saying this puts them at risk of suffering from a life-threatening blood clot.

Dr Deepak Bhatt, a cardiologist at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital, warned that the inactivity could lead to blood pooling in the legs and forming a clot.

This could then travel to an organ, like the lungs, and become stuck, reducing circulation and forcing the heart to work much harder, causing a heart attack.

He told DailyMail.com: ‘The advice I give to everyone, especially on longer flights, is don’t stay there cramped in your seat for a long time.

‘Every couple of hours, if you can, walk up and down the aisles and stretch a bit.’

It comes after Canadian traveler Emily Jansson, 33, suffered a life-threatening pulmonary embolism (PE) — where a blood clot blocked the artery supplying her lungs — and collapsed while on a 13-hour flight from Toronto to Dubai.

The mother-of-two had been seated for ten hours before standing up to use the bathroom, prompting her to let out two feeble coughs before collapsing.

The plane quickly landed and she was rushed to the hospital, where doctors said she had been approaching death because of her cardiac arrest. PE is a medical emergency and needs to be treated immediately to avert death.

Ms Jansson, who revealed her case on TikTok, was shocked by the incident, saying she had the ‘heart of an athlete’ because she regularly did long bike rides and cardio-intense workouts.

It is not common to suffer a pulmonary embolism on a flight, with the complication affecting around one in 40,000 passengers on long-haul flights that exceed 12 hours.

About 900,000 people are diagnosed with PE in the US every year, with about 10 to 30 percent of patients dying within a month of diagnosis, according to the American Lung Association. It is ranked as the third-leading cause of cardiovascular death.

In most cases, the condition is caused by a blood clot from the legs, called a deep vein thrombosis, traveling to the lungs.

Ms Jansson also revealed that she was wearing compression socks, which Dr Bhatt said were not recommended for healthy people.

He said: ‘There’s no evidence that in the context of people that are otherwise healthy that wearing these things on flights reduces blood clots, which is why I don’t generally recommend them for people.’

But for people who have had certain blood clots that damage the veins ‘we might recommend the socks to prevent swelling in the leg’.

He added: ‘At the minimum, in the seat, keep your legs moving and flex your ankles.’

The doctor also said it was important to stay hydrated on flights, which can also reduce the risk of clots forming by preventing blood from thickening.

He said: ‘In addition to getting up every couple of hours, it’s important to stay well hydrated. 

‘It reduces the risk of blood clots forming in the vein, especially in the legs, which can break off and go to the lungs.’

He also warned against drinking alcohol on flights, saying this was a diuretic and would prompt the body to lose water.

‘Even just a single drink, it’s not the end of the world, but it doesn’t help the cause. You definitely do not want to drink alcohol for a variety of reasons,’ he said. 

‘And no one needs another drunk person on a flight.’

Ms Jansson, who had been traveling with her husband, said she had not moved on the flight for ten hours because it was very busy. 

She said: ‘People are sleeping or eating. On top of that, they don’t really encourage you to get up and walk on flights and then there’s often turbulence so you have to be seated.

‘Still, I wish I had gotten up to move around much more.’ 

Staying seated for extended periods can increase the risk of blood clots that travel from the legs to the lungs. 

Dr William Shutze, a vascular surgeon in Texas, told DailyMail.com: ‘Sitting on a plane for extended periods causes the blood in your leg veins to stagnate or to pool because of the lack of leg muscle activity. 

‘Leg muscle activity is necessary to pump the blood out of your legs and back to your heart.’ 

Sitting in a cramped airline seat restricts blood flow to the legs and back to the heart while the muscles in the legs that normally pump blood back to the heart are inactive.

Dr Shutze added: ‘The general rule of thumb is to try to stand up, stretch, and walk down the aisle every two to three hours. If you’re unable to stand due to the “fasten seatbelt” sign, it’s helpful to flex your calf muscles as often as you can by raising and lowering your heels. 

‘The challenging part is remembering to do it. Setting an alarm on your phone to remind you to do 20 or 30 repetitions every 30 minutes is one way to remind you to keep the blood flowing.’

Ms Jansson’s history of having a minor procedure to reduce varicose veins in her legs may have contributed. 

She was also taking hormonal birth control, which increases the production of certain clotting factors in the liver while decreasing the production of anticoagulant proteins, which normally help prevent excessive clotting.

About 30 percent of people who experience PE do so a second time or more. 

Ms Jansson will undergo additional blood tests to ensure she won’t experience another clot. The risk is highest within six months of experiencing the first one. She is also taking blood thinners to prevent her blood from clotting again.

And the residual trauma of reaching the cusp of death continues to give her anxiety.

She said: ‘I was petrified flying home but it helped having my husband with me. I was afraid to go to the bathroom and lock the door so I had him stand guard outside.

‘I have some stuff to work through for sure.’

PE is relatively common, affecting roughly 900,000 and ranking as the third-leading cause of cardiovascular death. The top two are coronary artery disease and stroke.

Around 100,000 people who experience PE die, and doctors told Ms Jansson that she survived a ‘catastrophic event.’

‘I felt so grateful to be alive,’ Ms Jansson said.