Man

It was the spring of 2021. I was running like I usually do, training pretty much every day. I run quite a bit for my profession and to train for marathons and ultra distance marathon trail races, mainly, but also road marathons. It was April and I had some slight back pain — actually that…

I am a 30-year-old active man. I was riding my bike at night. I had my lights lowered and there was a big machine sitting on the road. I ran into it and got a head injury which was immediately treated with stitches. The stitches came off after 11 days but soon after the accident,…

Around late February 2026, a few days after one of my collegiate rugby games, I started to feel a cramping feeling in my calf. I thought it was just cramping from the game or dehydration. I was having shortness of breath doing just basic things like walking up a flight of stairs. I went to…

I’m 28, healthy, active, go to the gym 4–5 times a week, and I almost died from a pulmonary embolism. It started after a long flight back from the USA. I felt like I had the flu, sore throat, fatigue, the usual. One morning, I woke up with a sharp back pain and suddenly could…

I’ve been in and out of the hospital throughout the year, starting in January, when I underwent surgery to treat a pulmonary embolism (PE) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT). I had been experiencing pain and swelling in my leg, but I didn’t have any symptoms of a pulmonary embolism, like chest pain or shortness of…

I’m a 63-year-old man and have experienced two instances of blood clots (deep vein thrombosis, or DVTs) in my left calf. The first happened in 2018, shortly after being diagnosed with stage one lung cancer. I had surgery to remove the lower part of my left lung and followed regular scans for five years before…

As told by Allen’s daughter, Stephanie.  My dad had suffered from multiple health disorders, including A-fib, asthma, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and chronic cellulitis in both legs. I had been visiting him because he needed a lot of assistance. One day in February 2024, I couldn’t reach him. I went over to his apartment…

Not long ago, I faced a medical nightmare that nearly ended my life. It wasn’t just one issue — it was a total breakdown of my body from the inside out. It started with unbearable chest pain, shortness of breath, and intense abdominal pressure. I went to three different hospitals before I was treated. The…

In 2014, I was having pain in my stomach. I went to a local doctor and he told me it was my gallbladder. I weighed around 380 pounds at the time. I was scheduled for the operation, but I knew something wasn’t right a couple days before. On April 14, I had my surgery. Afterwards…

In October 2023, I was 25 years old and in the final stretch of training for the NYC Marathon. I was a Division I athlete in college and have been active and healthy for my entire life, and I was excited to run the marathon while raising money for lung cancer research. Three weeks before…