- A boy of 13 got deep vein thrombosis after playing computer
games for four hours.
-
- Dominic Patrick developed a blood clot from sitting with
his legs tucked underneath him.
-
- He needed a 10-month course of blood-thinning drugs to
cure the life-threatening condition usually associated with long-haul airline
passengers in cramped economy seats.
-
- Dominic said: "I had pins and needles in my legs
but I thought nothing of it.
-
- "The next day, when I was playing football with
my cousins, I couldn't run because my leg was tired and I had long pants
on so I didn't notice.
-
- "But when I pulled the trouser leg up my leg was
twice the size, it was swollen."
-
- Dominic, from Bebington, Merseyside, is a normal active
teenager who plays cricket, football and rugby and enjoys running.
-
- Devala Dookun, head of physiotherapy at Great Ormond
Street Hospital in central London, said she was shocked to see DVT in such
a healthy teenage boy.
-
- "We are all very shocked by this. It is a very rare
problem to occur in a child this young," she said.
-
- "He spent a lot of time sitting with his legs bent
underneath him whilst he was playing with his computer games. The key message
there should be not that children can't play these games but that they
shouldn't be staying in one position for hours on end."
-
- She said children should change position about every
30-45 minutes. "Stand up, have a wriggle, move around a bit,"
she said.
-
- © owned by or licensed to Trinity Mirror Digital
Media Limited 2001.
-
- http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13900025_method=full
_siteid=50143_headline=-I%2DGOT%2DDVT%2DPLAYING%2DON
%2DMY%2DCOMPUTER-name_page.html
|
