British Lord cushions impact of economy-class clots

By SCOTT MacLEOD AND NZPA

A British lord who counts himself lucky to be alive after getting a blood clot on a flight from New Zealand is urging the use of special cushions to beat the problem.

Lord Graham of Edmonton displayed his own cushion to the House of Lords while speaking about the week he spent in hospital three years ago fighting a near-fatal blood clot.

Lord Graham said during Friday's parliamentary debate on economy-class syndrome that he was lucky to survive the condition, also known as deep-vein thrombosis, after a long flight from New Zealand.

He felt "a real ninny" to have had a clot when he now knew there were many ways to avoid them, such as taking aspirin, drinking lots of water and exercising.

Brandishing his honeycomb-shaped cushion, Lord Graham said it was a new aid that spread the weight of a person sitting down. He said another good clot-killer was a static calf-muscle exerciser.

Lord Graham earlier said he used a vitamin blood-thinner called Jet Ease, made in New Zealand and marketed in England by NZ Health Products.

He has been a vocal campaigner for better facilities on aircraft since he had the clot. He was diagnosed with economy-class syndrome four days after the flight from New Zealand, and needed a week in hospital and another month on medication to recover.

In November, the Herald told how Lord Graham's experience had sparked a six-month British parliamentary inquiry into the safety of airline passengers.

His theory is that clots are more likely to form at a height of 10km because low air pressure causes the blood to thicken.

He believes the chances of a clot are higher if passengers are cramped, take no exercise or drink too much alcohol.

But many researchers say passengers are just as likely to get blood clots in first or business class, or even on long-distance bus and car trips.

The clots often form deep in the legs, and can prove fatal weeks later if they move to the lungs.

The Lords decided on Friday that the British Government should work harder to protect airline passengers from the "real and serious" threat of blood clots.

Tory Baroness Wilcox urged that immediate action be taken to study the condition.

"In general, the risks are small. But they are real and serious, particularly among certain categories of people and, moreover, they are not difficult to deal with," she said.

"We were astonished to find so little work has been done on this issue."

Herald Online feature: Economy class syndrome