Is pulmanry embolism life threatening?

Answer:
Pulmonary embolism is a condition that occurs when an artery in your lung becomes blocked. In most cases, the blockage is caused by one or more blood clots that travel to your lungs from another part of your body.Most of these blood clots originate in the legs, but they can also form in the arm veins, the right side of the heart or even at the tip of a catheter placed in a vein. In rare instances, other substances, such as a globule of fat, tissue from a tumor or a clump of bacteria, may lodge in the arteries of the lungs.In most cases, a pulmonary embolism isn't fatal. Still, pulmonary embolism is a leading cause of hospital deaths and an increasing threat to passengers on long airplane flights.

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short answer: yes, they can kill. BUT if you have had one and are sitting around wondering if it will kill you, then you will probably be fine since they kill instantly. The big thing to know is that something blocks the blood vessel going to the lungs. If the "something" (usually a blood clot) blocks the blood vessel at the place that it forks so one side goes to the right lung and one side to the left lung, then you have no blood going to you lungs. Thats a problem because if blood doesnt get to the lungs, it cant get oxygen, so it cant bring oxygen to the rest of your body (for example, your brain and heart). No oxygen = dead person. Most often tiny pieces of a clot will break off first and they will lodge somewhere in a small blood vessel in one of the lungs. You dont die from these, but they are a sign that there may be a big clot lurking somewhere that may dislodge and cause a massive and deadly pulmonary embolism if not found and eliminated. If you watch ER or Greys anatomy...on ER a while back Lucy was stabbed, had surgery, and then got really short of breath again and had to have emergency surgery...that second surgery was to fix a pulmonary embolism that she had developed. On Greys anatomy...Denny died of a pulmonary embolus.

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absolutely... means you have a clot in the arteries that supply blood (and all that it carries) to the lungs, so they stop functioning. It's more severe if the onset is sudden, like shortness of breath instaled in matter of minutes or so.

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