Mother champions awareness of pulmonary embolisms in young athletes

COBB COUNTY, Ga. - A Cobb County mother is working to raise awareness about pulmonary embolisms after hearing the story of a Denmark High School football star who died from the condition earlier this month. She says her son, who also played football, died of the same condition earlier this year. Both players had what's known as Factor V Leiden, which is an inherited blood clot disorder. 

"To hear of it happening again to another young athlete close to home, it was startling to me," Teri Stanfield said. 

Stanfield was shocked when she heard about the death of 17-year-old Finley Kruchten. He died of a massive pulmonary embolism on Oct. 9. 

Stanfield said her son, Bryce, also died from a massive pulmonary embolism in February, where a blood clot blocks an artery in the lungs. The 21-year-old Harrison High School graduate was in his third year as a defensive tackle at Furman University when he collapsed after practice and died days later. She said it started as back pain and turned out to be much more, later learning Bryce had Factor V Leiden. 

"It's not something that you think of happening with a young athlete you think of a pulmonary embolism more with a cancer patient or someone who just had a surgery," Stanfield said. 

"It's hard to predict which one of these patients are going to be affected by this mutation," said Dr. Gary Woods, clinical director of the Pediatric Thrombosis Program at CHOA. 

Dr. Woods said cases of pulmonary embolisms in kids and adolescents are rare. 

The condition across all age groups is the third leading cause of cardiovascular death, according to the American Lung Association. 

Dr. Woods said there also is a significant part of the population that may have Factor V Leiden, although many will not have symptoms throughout their life. 

"It's present in about one to five percent of the population," Dr. Woods said. 

"It's only about a five-to-seven-fold increased risk throughout your life. The risk for a blood clot in general in kids is about 10 per million at baseline so if it's five times more likely that sounds really scary but in a child the risk is still only about 50 per million," he added. 

He said some blood clotting risk factors are swelling, redness, and warmth that can't be explained by anything else. 

Stanfield encourages anyone who suspects they have a blood clot to get help right away. 

"Please seek medical attention immediately and advocate for yourself insist that you be checked for a blood clot," Stanfield said. 

You can find more information about blood clots at stoptheclot.org.