Coagulation of blood

Function What do blood clots do? Blood clots are the first line of defense if something damages your delicate blood vessels. If you cut yourself from shaving, blood clots are why the bleeding usually stops after a few seconds or minutes. You can develop a blood clot for other reasons, such as being immobile for a long time or having medical conditions that increase your blood clot risk. When that happens, your Anatomy What are blood clots made of? Blood clots are made of What do blood clots look like? A blood clot may look like a clump of reddish jelly held in place with netting. A closer look at a blood clot may show cells that look like tiny plates. These are platelets. The netting is fibrin. Blood clots’ red color comes from Where are blood clots located? You can have a blood clot anywhere in your body. Blood clots that happen in your When would I notice a blood clot? In general, you’d notice blood clot symptoms from clots forming in your veins and arteries. Leg pain, swollen legs and change in skin color may be DVT symptoms. Chest pain or shortness of breath can be symptoms of blood clots in your Conditions and Disorders What conditions or disorders involve blood clots? Blood clot issues are associated with many different kinds of conditions. You may develop a blood clot because you cut yourself and your body is working to stop your bleeding. There are conditions that focus on blood clots, such as bleeding disorders or blood clotting issues. You may also develop condit...

Charles Barber Grand Central Publishing, $29 The average human body holds about 5 liters of blood. Lose a liter, and you may go into shock. Lose two more, and you’ll probably die. For doctors treating traumatic injuries, keeping a patient’s blood in their body is “one of the most fundamental problems of survival,” In the Blood. Solutions to that problem haven’t changed all that much in centuries. Doctors can pack a wound with gauze or put pressure on blood vessels to slow bleeding. While other areas of medicine have leaped ahead over time, Barber notes, emergency medicine has largely stood still, an inertia that’s had deadly consequences. Some 50,000 people in the United States bleed to death every year. You’d think, then, that a product that can stanch bleeding would be celebrated in the streets, snapped up immediately by military doctors and emergency rooms alike. You’d be wrong. In the Blood chronicles the invention and bafflingly slow adoption of QuikClot and its successors, inexpensive clotting agents that can stop big bleeds in minutes. Barber, who’s also written about criminal justice and mental health, leads readers on the path from product invention to implementation — and it’s a treacherous journey. Barber starts his story, which races like a thriller, in Mogadishu, Somalia, at the scene of the 1993 battle that inspired the movie Black Hawk Down. After two American helicopters were shot down, John Holcomb, then a U.S. Army major, and other doctors treated dozens ...