cause of sam's death

the post mortem revealed the cause of death as pulmonary embolism. they found a 3 inch blod clot in the artery leading to the lungs. the calf acts as the 'peripheral heart.' each time you walk or contract the calf muscle, blood is being pumped back into the heart. if for some reason you are not moving your legs for a long time(paralysis, fracture, coma,long distance flight aka economy class syndrome), there will be stasis of blood in the leg which predisposes to clot formation. the clot can rupture and travel all the way to the heart and from there it goes to the lungs. it then blocks blood flow to the lungs. the severity of pulmonary embolism is dependent on the size of the clot. a small clot will resolve by itself. a slightly bigger one will cause localized chest pain. in the sam's case, sudden death. the pain will mimick a heart attack.

since the accident, sam has not moved at all(more than a week). he had an operation done on his left femur. he was found unconscious in the toilet. all this while, the nurses were the one helping him to the toilet. a few times he insisted that he was strong enough to do it himself but they didnt allow him to. maybe while he was walking to the toilet, the clot/embolus ruptured and then went to block his lungs. he was staying in a single room and no one was sure how long he was unconscious.