A Tayside woman has thanked medical staff for the fact she is still alive after she developed a potentially life-threatening blood clot on a long-haul flight.
Angie Trimble from Arbroath was on a family holiday driving round the US with her husband Matthew when she developed a slight backache.
Despite Angie thinking nothing of it at the time, the pain was the beginning of potentially life threatening deep vein thrombosis.
Angie, 47, who lives at Carmyllie and is originally from the States, said: “We had flown to and from Nova Scotia and then spent two weeks driving round various states in the USA.
“We had a great trip and although I developed slight backache when I was there, I never for one minute thought there was anything seriously wrong.”
However, the niggling back pain continued and on Tuesday of last week things took a turn for the worse.
Angie said: “I was at my work in Letham and felt so awful with the back pain that I even had to take a minute to lie down when things were quiet.”
Later, Angie was at home getting ready to have a bath when she was shocked to discover her leg had turned blue and was almost twice its normal size.
She contacted NHS 24 and was taken to Arbroath Infirmary that same night where medics discovered she had a deep vein thrombosis. Doctors gave Angie a scan and medication and she began to make a recovery.
Angie, who said she was very grateful to the staff at Arbroath, said: “Basically, I believe the brilliant NHS staff at the hospital saved my life,
“I really wasn’t prepared for that because although I had back pain I didn’t have any other symptoms.
“I was seen within 10 minutes by kind, helpful, knowledgeable and funny staff.
“The doctor even picked up on my brand of humour and bantered with me, which went a long way to keeping me calm.
“I’m still in pain but am recovering and alive. Clots can be very dangerous and sometimes travel to the heart and lungs and kill you.
“I’m lucky that my leg gave me a signal of something dangerous.
“And I’m also very lucky and grateful that the staff at Arbroath Infirmary acted so quickly.”