UCSF Patient Coughs Up Huge Blood Clot Shaped Like Lung
SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX) -- Doctors were stunned after a patient at UC San Francisco coughed up a six-inch blood clot that perfectly preserved the shape of his right bronchial tree.
Dr. Georg Wieselthaler, with UCSF, described the extraordinary occurrence in an interview with KPIX.
"Initially everybody was shocked because it was so big," Dr. Wiesenthaler said.
"We laid it out, saw it was more or less a cast of his full right lung -- which is ... very rare because, usually, it breaks into several pieces and you would never have the full cast like this."
The 36-year old man had a medical history which included heart failure. He also had a permanent pacemaker and, about a week after the clot was removed, he died.
