Child

As told by Karlie’s mother, Celina. Last June, my 17-year-old daughter Karlie mentioned pain in her left leg. She was a dancer, and dancers always have pain: a pulled muscle, a pinched nerve, or sciatica. The pain increased and moved into her groin area. We treated it as the internet said: heat, ice, and elevate.…

As told by Finley’s mother, Veronica Finley had been diagnosed with factor V Leiden homozygous in May 2023. I asked for him to be tested due to family history. No one explained his diagnosis to us, nor was it given any credence when brought up at doctor appointments. In June of 2024, in the height…

What started as a normal evening quickly turned into the scariest experience of my life. I had been feeling achy, with some pain in my ear. The doctor prescribed an antibiotic for an ear infection, and we assumed I’d start feeling better soon. But later that night, the pain in my ear spread down to…

I went to the hospital in June 2022 with chest and back pain. The doctor told me I strained something playing softball and needed to lose weight. I was very active in high school and played four varsity sports as a starter. In December 2022, I went back to the ER, where the same doctor…

On December 19, 2024, I noticed that my right thigh hurt and was discolored (purple-ish) but dismissed it, thinking that it was just bad circulation that would go away. Later that night, I felt extremely light-headed, my vision went dark and almost passed out. My mom and I rushed to the hospital because something was…

I went on an oral contraceptive to help with my acne. My doctor went over all of the risks, including blood clots. She specified that most clots from oral contraceptives are in the calf. I understood and went on the birth control. Two months later, I woke up with severe pain in my abdomen and…

On January 19, 2024, I received a call from my 13-year-old son, Christian. He was struggling to breathe. He’d been unwell for weeks, starting with an unknown virus that had progressed to pneumonia. Just the day before, he was diagnosed and treated in an ER. We took him back, assuming his breathing issues were a…

In 2016, when I was a sophomore in high school, I started having trouble breathing. My primary care doctor couldn’t figure out what was going on. I kept getting worse until my mom finally requested a specialist. They saw that my pulmonary pressures were through the roof and they wouldn’t let me go home. After…

Wednesday, January 18, 2023, will be a day I will never forget. It started as an ordinary day at home with my two children, Amelia, and Andre. My son Andre, who had just turned 3 a month before, had been sick for about a week. I had already taken him to the pediatrician just three…

Less than two days after giving birth to her first baby, my aunt died of blood clots in her lungs and heart. I was 13 at the time and the news shocked the whole family. Two weeks after her funeral, I had some strange leg pain. I thought I had pulled a muscle or injured…