Silver Cross Patients Can Breathe Easier After Lifesaving Procedure to Remove Blood Clots

Interventional radiologists on staff at Silver Cross Hospital in New Lenox are saving lives and helping patients with blood clots in the lung breathe easier thanks to an innovative technology that “retrieves” the clots. 

Don Martinez of New Lenox is one of them. Martinez thought it was a little odd when he became easily winded after recent surgery to repair an Achilles tendon. 

“I had worked out on my recumbent bike before the surgery to build up my strength,” said Martinez, 67. “I was doing 8,000 or 9,000 steps a day, more on weekends. But suddenly, I was easily winded. And going upstairs, I had to hang on to the rail. I just kind of ignored it, because, you know, guys don’t go to the hospital.” 

Martinez’s situation changed pretty quickly as he was getting the stitches out of his ankle. 

“Everything looked good; then, the doctor asked if there was anything else going on. I said, ‘Yeah, I get winded easily now.’ She said you go to the emergency room now! I think you have blood clots.” 

Martinez asked his wife Sandra to drive him to Silver Cross, where he had excellent care during an in-patient COVID visit in last December. 

“My wife dropped me off at the Emergency Room entrance, they got me in a wheelchair, and before she had the car parked, they had an IV in me. And I must have been some celebrity, because before I knew it, I had three doctors and staff around me. Dr. Ashish Vyas was one of them. He told me I was in pretty bad shape. I had clots everywhere in my lungs, and we needed to get them out.” 

One option could have been medicine that would have broken up the clots. But then, there would have been a possibility of a stroke – or incomplete or delayed response to treatment.       

Dr. Vyas, who specializes in Interventional Radiology, has had great success for several years with a newer procedure using the Inari FlowTriever device, an over-the-wire system designed to remove pulmonary emboli (blood clots) through both mechanical and aspiration mechanisms. 

“We use a CT scan to give us the location and degree of severity of the clot,” Dr. Vyas said. “After obtaining venous access in the groin, we advance a wire from the access site, up through the vein in the abdomen and carefully across the valves of the right heart into the clot within the pulmonary arteries. Over this wire, we advance the Inari FlowTriever thrombectomy device into the clot and manually aspirate the thrombus using suction, known as mechanical suction thrombectomy.” 

“The device can then be repositioned under X-ray to capture and remove small and large clots involving the pulmonary arteries,” he added. “This is done with minimal blood loss and immediate, real-time improvement in patient symptoms…on the table. As we remove the clot, we can see the patient, who is in twilight anesthesia, begin to breathe easier right away.” 

Following the procedure, Martinez said they brought him into Intensive Care Unit to keep close watch on him “like every 20 minutes.” 

“The nurse who was on duty when I came in stopped in the next day. She said, ‘Mr. Martinez, honestly, I didn’t expect to see you today. You were in pretty bad shape. You are very lucky.’” 

Elwood Woman’s Life Saved by Retrieving Blood Clots

Patricia King of Elwood also feels pretty lucky. A couple weeks after knee surgery in 2021, she started feeling sluggish, and breathing was getting difficult. 

“I told my sister I was going to lie down because I wasn’t feeling well,” said King, 68. “The next thing I knew, my sister was telling me she called an ambulance. I said why? She said, ‘Look around, you’re lying in a pool of blood.’ King had passed out at home from an acute, large pulmonary embolus. 

King later learned she had passed out in her bedroom, hitting her head on a nightstand. At Silver Cross, they first did a CT scan of her head and put in 17 staples. Then, they did a CT scan of her chest. 

“They told me the scan showed a lot of clots in my lungs. So, I thought, OK, they’ll just give me some Heparin, and that’ll be it,” said King, an ICU nurse at Silver Cross since 1999. 

“But Dr. Vyas said that would take too long, and he could offer a newer procedure he thought would work better, with immediate results. I was a little wary, but one of his Physician’s Assistants, Desi, whom I knew, said that would be the treatment she would go with. So that helped in my making my decision.” 

After a brief stay in the ICU, King said she felt the weight lifted off her chest. 

Due to some damage to her lungs, King required oxygen for a while after discharge from the hospital and followed up with a cardiologist to monitor changes to her heart rhythm. She’s also taking anticoagulant medication. An additional scan showed no further blood clots, and she’s back to part-time work in the ICU. 

A Life-Saver

Ironically, King said her sister in St. Louis had a similar procedure to remove clots in her leg following surgery. 

“So, both of us had this life-saving procedure. It’s just amazing that they could go in and suck out the clots like that. Dr. Vyas and the procedure saved my life.” 

Martinez was in the hospital only a couple days. And the first time they let him get up after a day or so, he said, “It felt amazing. I had so much more energy. 

“They had asked me after the procedure if I wanted to see the clot. It looked like the size of a washcloth.” 

“Dr. Vyas saved my life,” Martinez said choking back tears. “And, oh my God, what a difference after the surgery. I am clot-free.” 

“To me, Silver Cross Hospital is among the best in the country. They all were just amazing.” 

For more information, visit www.silvercross.org