What may seem like just a bad cold or simple pneumonia may be a life-threatening case of pulmonary embolism.

Former American Vice-President Dan Quayle never knew what hit him. He was promoting his memoir,”Standing Firm;’ when he experienced severe shortness of breath and had trouble finishing his speeches. He thought it was just a bad cold and didn’t bother to see a doctor. It was a bad decision. On November 27, 1 g94, he was brought to the emergency room at the Indiana University Medical Center The doctor’s diagnosis: “walking pneumonia:’

Quayle, then 47, was sent home; he thought the problem was over The following day, however, his breathing difficulty worsened and he was admitted to the emergency room again. After further tests, doctors re-diagnosed his condition as a “pulmonary embolism;’ or having a blood clot in his lung. “You’d be surprised how often a pulmonary embolism is missed, even with most skilled physicians7Quayle said in a statement following his release, “Misdiagnosis is common. I was lucky very lucky:’

He was indeed very lucky. In the United States, pulmonary embolism is the third most common cause of death in hospitalized patients, with at least 650,000 cases occurring annually. Autopsy studies have shown that approximately 60 percent of patients who died in the hospital had pulmonary embolism, and the diagnosis was missed in up to 70 percent of the cases,

In other parts of the world, the incidence of pulmonary embolism varies substantially from country to country. Experts claim that “observed variation” is likely due to differences in the accuracy of diagnosis rather than the disease incidence.

“In the 1 ggo5, it was believed that Filipinos are less suscept to pulmonary embolism7says Dr. Willie I Ong, a cardiologist at Manila Doctors Hospital. “But recent reports seem to indicate that we are at similar risks.”