---
title: "COVID Patients Are Getting Mysterious and Deadly Blood Clots"
description: "Doctors are noticing mysterious blood clots in COVID-19 patients that are causing extremely low oxygen levels. But there are still countless unknowns."
date: "2020-04-23"
modified: "2020-04-23"
authors:
  - name: "Victor Tangermann"
    job_title: "Senior Editor"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/victor"
url: "https://futurism.com/neoscope/covid-patients-deadly-blood-clots"
categories:
  - "Developments"
  - "Health & Medicine"
tags:
  - "coronavirus"
  - "covid19"
---

# COVID Patients Are Getting Mysterious and Deadly Blood Clots

![Doctors are noticing mysterious blood clots in COVID-19 patients that are causing extremely low oxygen levels. But there are still countless unknowns.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/covid-patients-getting-blood-clots.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: NIAID/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

Scientists and healthcare workers are still trying to make sense of the many symptoms of COVID-19.

From [extensive lung](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/coronavirus-patients-lung-damage>) and [blood vessel](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/doctors-covid-attacks-blood-vessels-throughout-body>) damage to the [loss of smell and taste](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/doctors-first-symptom-sense-of-smell>) and even strange [discoloration of toes](<https://futurism.com/neoscope/covid-toes>), questions linger about the deadly virus currently sweeping the globe.

Now, doctors are noticing mysterious blood clots in COVID-19 patients that may be causing extremely low oxygen levels — so low that they should be unconscious or even dead — but still acting normally, [according to *The Washington Post*](<https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/04/22/coronavirus-blood-clots/>).

The strange clots have even prompted some doctors have suggested giving blood thinners to all COVID patients, including the ones not sick enough to be hospitalized.

Autopsies showed that patients' lungs were filled with hundreds of tiny clots or microclots rather than one large hemorrhage that could've caused a stroke or heart attack.

"The problem we are having is that while we understand that there is a clot, we don’t yet understand why there is a clot," Lewis Kaplan, a University of Pennsylvania physician, told the *Post*. "We don’t know. And therefore, we are scared."

Researchers are now investigating whether these microclots could play a role in deaths across the country.

But first, they are trying to understand what is causing them in the first place.

"One of the theories is that once the body is so engaged in a fight against an invader, the body starts consuming the clotting factors, which can result in either blood clots or bleeding," Kaplan told the *Post*.

## Author
I've been at Futurism since 2017, where my role has evolved to encompass design, writing, and increasingly editing. I've always been fascinated by space exploration and advanced transportation, which I've leaned into by interviewing luminaries in those fields while closely following the dimensions of policy and regulation that allow next-generation projects to succeed -- or, sometimes, to fail. I'm also keenly interested in the effects of generative AI on society, policies, and democratic institutions, as well as clean energy, physics and biology, and the vagaries of tech leadership. My work for Futurism has been cited by publications including Ars Technica, Gizmodo, PC Magazine, Jalopnik, Fox News, and the New York Post. I spent my childhood living in locations including Manila, the Philippines, and Geneva, Switzerland, attended McGill University, and now live in Toronto, Canada. Before Futurism I worked at AskMen and a small photography studio. In my free time, I'm an avid gardener, foodie, and craft beer lover, as well as a maker of artisanal hot pepper sauces. I have a magnificent dog named Freida.

### Author social links  
[Bluesky](<https://bsky.app/profile/vtanger.bsky.social>)