The FDA letter talked about different adverse events. I had heard about a stroke but hadn't heard the details until now. What a terrible thing to have happened. I am not sure how venoplasty of the jugulars could contribute to a stroke. Could the balloon have been inflated large enough that it pressed against the carotid artery and somehow diminished flow? Heparin is administered during the procedure but could a clot have formed and travelled? Or if both jugulars were severely blocked, could cutting off flow through the one jugular have caused a complete outflow obstruction leading to a stroke? It's hard to weigh the risk of a stroke when it is unclear how it could follow venoplasty of the jugulars at the base of the neck.In the second documented case, a man, experienced complications immediately following the procedure, including difficulty communicating, a facial droop and double vision. He was taken directly to Hoag’s emergency department, where an MRI scan revealed that an acute obstruction of blood to the brain stem had caused a severe stroke. After five days in Hoag’s stroke management care unit, his condition stabilized and the patient was transferred.
The FDA also included abdominal bleeding as one of its adverse events, and it took me awhile to connect that to Mr. Mostic, who passed away in Costa Rica after being turned away for clot treatment in his native Canada. Abdominal bleeding was a complication of the drug taken to dissolve the clot, which was itself a complication of the stent. Very sad.
http://www.thisisms.com/forum/chronic-c ... tml#p65185
What happened to Holly was also an arterial bleed in the brainstem.