David Chao served as the Chargers team doctor for 17 years while they were still in San Diego, so when he studied the statement the Philadelphia Eagles released about Jalen Hurts and his blood clot, the doctor focused on one key word that will determine whether the quarterback misses a little time or a long time.
The word that glowed in neon for Dr. Chao was “movement.”
The Eagles’ statement announcing Hurts is out for Sunday’s game against the Carolina Panthers said that a follow-up ultrasound on Wednesday revealed “movement in the small blood clot” the team had discovered four days earlier.
That blood clot discovered on Saturday was described by the team as “superficial.”
“What do they mean by movement?” Dr. Chao told OutKick. “Do they mean movement as in it’s propagating and it’s now a bigger superficial blood clot? Or is it movement meaning it’s deeper and it’s a deep vein clot?
“If he has a deep vein clot, he’s out for multiple weeks, at least.”
Dr. Chao explained superficial clots can indeed move. They can move and remain superficial.
“But if movement means it has become deep vein, then he’s out long term, and they haven’t revealed the whole breadth or depth of the news yet,” he added.
By “deep vein,” Dr. Chao means a deep vein thrombosis. If Hurts has a deep vein thrombosis in his leg, missing one game on Sunday would be only the start of a long and possibly season-ending absence.
“If it’s a deep vein thrombosis it starts to be measured in months not weeks,” Dr. Chao said.
That’s not all. A deep vein thrombosis (DVT) clot can break loose. It can travel through the bloodstream to the lungs and block blood flow. That’s known as a pulmonary embolism.
“Then he would be out for the season,” Dr. Chao said.
A pulmonary embolism requires strong anticoagulation medicine. And no doctor would clear Hurts to play while taking such medication. Why can’t a player play if he is on strong anticoagulants? The risk of bleeding.
No, a player is not going to have a medical emergency from a scratch that won’t stop bleeding. But there is other bleeding that must be considered.
“Internal organ bleeding would be worrisome, but the big fear is, what if you have a brain bleed?” said Dr. Chao, who is the founder of the sports injury insights site SICScore.com.
Dr. Chao said going on anticoagulants does not automatically keep Hurts from being cleared to play. The issue is the strength of the anticoagulant he might require.
The Eagles, it should be noted, said they first discovered Hurts’ blood clot by doing an ultrasound after they flew to London on Saturday. The clot at that time was “superficial” and it was decided Hurts could play. Then the team flew back to Philadelphia after the game and on Wednesday evening a new ultrasound discovered the “movement” that caused the team to rule Hurts out against the Panthers.
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So did the flight back from London make the quarterback’s condition worse?
“I hear you,” Dr. Chao said. “But it depends what they did for the flight. If they said, ‘Oh, nothing to see here, don’t worry about it,’ that would raise an eyebrow.
“You have to understand, people with superficial DVTs get sent home and do sleep at night and that’s sometimes eight hours. He’s not in a seat that can’t move. If they urged him to move, they had some sort of pulsatile device on his leg, they had compression stockings, blood thinned it a little bit, then the flight is very defensible.
“If they said nothing to see here, it causes at least an eyebrow raise.”