ABERDEEN, S.D. (AP) - An athletic trainer at Presentation College in Aberdeen is receiving praise for alerting an athlete to a blood clot in his leg.
Blake Spindler met last month with Chris Alban, a defensive back on the football team, to discuss discomfort he was feeling in his right leg. Spindler then recognized abnormal vital signs indicating Alban had a blood clot, and sent him to see a doctor.
Alban was diagnosed with a blood clot and received treatment at a local hospital.
“You never want a blood clot to spread to the lungs, and I knew it was important to get him in,” Spindler told the Aberdeen American News (https://bit.ly/1P4xu9U ). “He was in for a procedure later that week to get the clot removed.”
Although he’s doing better, Alban likely won’t be back on a football field for a while, and he said his football future is uncertain. But Alban credits Spindler with catching the blood clot, which is rare for a young athlete, before it had the chance to reach his lungs or heart.
“Blake did a great job. I thought at first that it was just a muscle pull,” Alban said. “If Blake didn’t notice what he noticed, I may not have gotten in as soon as I did and anything negative could have happened.”
There was also a swimmer at Northern State University who had a blood clot this year, said Sean Duffy, who serves as head athletic trainer for the school’s teams at Northern State University. He said such serious problems aren’t commonly found in his work as an athletic trainer.
“You don’t see that very often - maybe once in a career,” Duffy said. “You just don’t see stuff like that very often in 18- to-20-year-old physically active individuals.”
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Information from: Aberdeen American News, https://www.aberdeennews.com
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