According to the National Blood Clot Alliance, an estimated 900,000 individuals in the United States are affected and 100,000 are killed by preventable blood clots annually. Blood clots can affect any individual at any age through various risk factors, such as surgery, pregnancy, and cancer treatment, killing more Americans than car crashes, AIDS and breast cancer combined.
After Emily's passing, the family established Emily's Promise, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness of blood clots, pulmonary embolisms and ankle fracture, as well as promoting kindness as a community value. Emily herself was known to be an exceptional young woman who always expressed kindness toward others and exhibited tremendous compassion for those around her. Unfortunately, Emily's life was cut short by a blood clot after receiving treatment for a broken ankle and gall bladder surgery.
Advocacy efforts by Emily's Promise following Emily's death led to the formal enactment of the Emily Adkins Prevention Act which now requires establishment of a policy workgroup by the Secretary of the Agency for Health Care Administration, in conjunction with the State Surgeon General, to enhance the detection of blood clots in Florida.
What can you do, you ask? Mr. Adkins stated, "The first thing you can do it to check your Caprini risk score to see if you're at high risk for blood clots. If you are having surgery, be sure to ask "what's my blood clot prevention plan". If you start to have symptoms of a blood clot, I would urge you to go immediately to Memorial Hospital who has implemented a mechanical thrombectomy so when they identify a clot, they will actually remove it and not just send you home with anticoagulants attempting to reduce the clot".
The caprini test and other important information related to blood clots can be found on the official Emily's Promise website.
-Sabrina Robertson
Public Information Officer