Jalen Hurts blood clots: What to know about the diagnosis, treatment

There's a guy that we know quite well, Dr. David Chow. He spent 17 years as the head team physician for the San Diego Chargers. We bring him in again. Good afternoon, Doc. Good afternoon. I'm sorry to keep coming on like this. I said, you know, it's been a crazy... We saw you on Thursday when this news first broke about the clot. First of all, your initial reaction to what we're hearing today, that it looks like there are more... They've maybe spread, broken up, and they're in his lungs. Well, this is why I said the operative word of the first Eagles press release was movement. What does movement of the small blood clot mean? Movement is not really a medical word so it was not specific propagation, and the worry was it's now become a deep vein thrombosis which is the case now and it's gone more than that, it's gone into his lungs and apparently both lungs. The good news is there's no indication that it is what we call a saddle embolus and that is the quote "fatal type". Look, it's right to be worried about this young man in his health, it's right to put his health first and not worry about football for this season but treated appropriately and there's no reason to think that his blood clot is not being treated appropriately with blood thinners and what have you. It is not something that is supposed to be fatal or even long term. You just need to recognize it, which the team has and Jalen and his doctors have, and you need to treat it aggressively, which I think that they are. So with that in mind, we're hopeful that this is more scare than reality in terms of anything long term related to Jalen Hurts. the term. But there's a lot of people on social media that are playing literally Monday morning quarterback. And by that, I mean they're looking at what the timeline is. We're hearing now from the press release from the Eagles that he was looked at by a London specialist. Do you believe that's the first time they knew that there was a clot in that body? That seems to be the case by the pattern of information that's been released in order to determine that there is any sort of clot you need some sort of duplex or Doppler or ultrasound device that seems to be, that's what was done in London and by that report it was a small quote "superficial blood clot", which is to be distinguished from a deep vein thrombosis superficial is different. Obviously the superficial has now seemed to have progressed and I would say at least this kudo for the Eagles medical staff they didn't just leave it at superficial, they did a follow-up study 72 hours later and I think that's what they discovered, some worsening of the circumstance uh etc, so it does seem like that is the fact pattern the swelling for the first time was either Thursday or Friday and then by Saturday they had the the blood clot stuff and I guess this explains Jalen Hurts's description of a unique injury experience right I'm hearing the rumors that he stayed awake and and what have you that's an interesting component I want to ask you about that in just a second but first as a team physician do you travel to every away game like was the guy at the team looking they don't right they they're on the field no that's not true you you travel to it look when people when i was a team physician the number one question i got asked is do you go to away games and my answer was they play the same game on the road as they play at home if they don't need us on the road they don't need us at home they need the doctors on the road just like at home and every team physician travels as a matter of fact three team physicians typically travel with an nfl team we had myself the head team physician another orthopedic guy and a primary care specialist that's the norm for nfl team to travel three physicians and at least five athletic trainers physical therapists etc and yes i have made that london trip before with the then san diego chargers when we played the saints in the second year of the london game so 1000 percent that they travel with the team and more than one doctor and i get that there's a lot of potential criticism out there the eagles how did you let a guy fly on a flight with a some sort of blood clot well apparently a it wasn't deep number one number two if the average guy on the street knows that flying with a blood clot is a potential problem i would think and assume the eagles medical staff athletic trainers all knew it it would be normal for an NFL medical staff to take precautions. And remember, Jalen Hurts is not flying on Southwest Airlines in a middle seat. He's in a first-class seat. My assumption is whether it's Ted Ho's wrapping, encouraging him to move on the plane, calf squeezers, ankle pumps, perhaps even aspirin as a low-level blood thinner, I would assume a lot of those precautions were utilized by the eagles medical staff because i look the eagles medical staff they brought back the guy that helped you all win that super bowl i think 2019 he's the lead guy and and i know him to be an excellent physician that's my question you think he's complaining on the plane they're doing all they can on the plane they can't fix it on the plane so then him and the and the does whoever takes him to this specialist in london and that's when they check it out they realize what they're dealing with and if the reports on social media are true that's when he's told to stay up and not take a critical nap before he uh plays the game that that that has to be a little bit of a misinterpretation i would assume i've never look i'm an orthopedic surgeon but as a head team physician i would never tell a player don't sleep at all like it is normal to go to sleep in general moving your ankle and your calf and pumping your legs at least here and there is better for not forming more blood clots, which is why you don't want to be squeezing on a plane in the middle seat and not getting up for prolonged periods of time. Not the case with Jalen Hurts. But I've never heard anyone say, don't get any sleep. I mean, the most it would be is perhaps send an alarm for X, Y, and Z period of time and get up and move around at most. But remember also, there are also compression devices on calves and other things that you can utilize when you sleep. So I'm not sure what to make of those comments. That's good. Bottom line, one of the last questions I want to ask you, it's been brought up in the newsroom. It's definitely been on social media. You think he's going to play again if he wants to, yes? Yes, not this season, but yes. I mean, look, just in the game this weekend, Taylor Moten, the right tackle of the Carolina Panthers, has missed a lot of time from last season with a blood clot. The right tackle for the Carolina Panthers that faced the Eagles this weekend had a blood clot himself and has returned. And so that is the norm that he would have the choice to be able to return, assuming there's no blood dyscrasia or blood clotting disorder that we don't know about. Dr. Chow, I know you are a busy guy. When there is an injury like this, your phone rings like none other. So we appreciate the fact that you pick up the call when we call. Thank you.