Computer Game Player Gets Blood Clot In Leg

Thanks to BBC News for its article discussing a UK teenager who developed a blood clot in his leg after playing videogames in one position for too long. The piece explains: "Dominic Patrick, 14, from Merseyside, developed deep vein thrombosis after a rainy day inside with a games console... The potentially dangerous condition was caused because Dominic had his legs tucked under his body." A doctor interviewed suggested this was a relatively rare case, however: "The only risk factor we could find in this case was the fact that Dominic had sat on his legs for 10 hours playing computer games without moving... [however, it] doesn't mean that the government should be putting health warnings on PlayStations."

DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis)

[limekiller4]

I was working in a NOCC about two years back when I got a blood clot too. It was pretty !@#$ing painful, I thought I'd gotten a hairline fracture in my pelvis -- I was just walking down the street when bam!

This resulted in a few days in the hospital (IIRC, the bill came out to something like $5k just for 2-3 days). After that, I was on fragmin which is injectable, and you do that yourself. In my case I found a spot around my bellbutton, pinch that area, then throw the needle in. Sounds terrible, wasn't that bad once you got the hang of stabbing yourself with a needle. Then six months of warfarin, a blood thinner. This is the prime ingredient in rat poison, I should mention, because it causes rats to just start bleeding to death.

All in all it was an entirely unpleasant experience. You also have to return to some location every two weeks for them to take blood to make sure your warfarin dose does not need tweaking.

I'm convinced that it was linked to my job at the NOCC but it wasn't until about a year later that I actually saw links coming out in the medical journals between sitting for long periods and DVT. Previously it was thought to occur mainly in long-distance flights. Also known as Second Class Syndrome (or something. =)

It seems to me that if DVT is caused by sitting, cramped, for long durations, where you're sitting and where you're going really don't factor in. The connection between sitting for long periods and getting DVT seems to be pretty clear.

Besides, it wouldn't suck to have OSHA mandate really awesome chairs for all of us, right? =D

How unfortunate

[gmhowell]

How unfortunate... That he lived. For fucks sake, what a gawddamn loser.

And there already are plenty of warnings on video game consoles. I can't open a manual or catalog for my GC without repeated references to seizures. The only question is whether or not they'll add 'don't sit on your dead ass' warnings before or after the inevitable lawsuit. Oh, UK teen. Maybe there won't be a lawsuit.

Re:evolution

[Kent_Franken]

I developed deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after a flight from the US to the Ukraine. After it was repaired (months of taking anti-coagulation medicine dissolved it) I asked my Doctor what I could do to avoid this next time I take a long flight. He told me to drink lots of water. When I asked him if that was to keep my blood from getting too thick, he said it was just to make me get up every hour or so to go to the bathroom.

So yes, if you don't want a DVT, get up and stretch your legs and do some deep knee bends once every hour or so.

Re:DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis)

[TwistedGreen]

This resulted in a few days in the hospital (IIRC, the bill came out to something like $5k just for 2-3 days).

Well that's America for you: profit from the sick and injured.

Black & White

[Scrameustache]

Once, after playing Black & White for 6 hours straight, the lil' demon helper came out of nowhere and said "Its gettin' kinda late boss, maybe you should take a rest". I hadn't noticed the time, realised it was late indeed and I had work the next day, saved and quit.

That was cool, and apparently it was a life-saver!