From 6:30 to 8 p.m. Monday, April 16, Melanie, Bloom's widow, and now the national patient spokesperson for the Coalition to Prevent DVT, will talk about this serious health threat during a special free Health for Your Lifetime seminar at the Holiday Inn Conference Center, 1220 First Avenue, Coralville.

The seminar is offered by University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics and is open to the public, but registration is encouraged. To register or for more information, call UI Health Access at 319-384-8442 or 800-777-8442.

Two physicians from UI Hospitals and Clinics will join Bloom at the event. Peter Kaboli, MD, MS, UI Hospitals and Clinics internist and assistant professor in the UI Department of Internal Medicine, and John Sharp, MD, UI Hospitals and Clinics surgeon and associate professor of surgery and a specialist with UI Heart and Vascular Center, will explain how DVT causes a clot to form in blood vessels, usually in the legs. A portion of that clot can break off and travel through the bloodstream to the lungs or heart and cause a potentially fatal complication of DVT called a pulmonary embolism, or PE.

Prolonged immobility, combined with dehydration, may have led to the development of David Bloom's fatal blood clot. He also had a silent risk factor called factor V Leiden, an inherited blood coagulant disorder that can increase a person's risk of DVT. Having three or more risk factors for DVT may put someone at risk and can lead to a potentially fatal PE.

Melanie Bloom hopes that in telling her story she can raise public awareness of the silent, insidious killer that took her husband's life.

For more information:

Peter Kaboli, MD, MS

John Sharp, MD

UI Heart and Vascular Center