Post-operative patients at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton now have access to a new approach to removing blood clots in lungs — one that is not only less invasive, but more safe.
“For post-operative patients where medication is not an option, immediate removal of the clots is essential to saving the patient,” said Dr. Kiran Reddy, one of the interventional radiologists in Edmonton that are able to perform the procedure.
“The risk of death is very high with post-surgical patients presenting with a pulmonary embolism, so the ability to act quickly and remove the clots in an interventional suite is a game-changer for patients.”
The procedure involves threading a catheter inside a vein using X-ray imaging. A long tube travels to the heart and into the lungs where the dangerous blood clot is removed, significantly reducing the risk of heart failure and death.
Doctors at the Royal Alexandra Hospital first used the approach in March of 2024, as part of a pilot project between the hospital and the University of Alberta Hospital. It’s now the standard practice at both facilities, along with Stollery Children’s Hospital and the Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary.
So far, more than 50 of these life-saving procedures have been performed in the Edmonton Zone, including for 59-year-old Dave Batke.
A month after having back surgery in late 2024, Batke said he got out of bed and collapsed.
“I was gasping for air,” Batke said. “I had a huge weight on my chest.”
At first he thought he was having a heart attack.
He was rushed to the Royal Alexandra Hospital where he was diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism and was given two options: be flown to the University of Alberta hospital for open heart surgery, or have a non-invasive procedure at the Royal Alex, performed by Dr. Reddy.
It was an easy decision.
“I was scared, but it was a no-brainer,” he told Global News. “The severity between the two, open heart surgery or this procedure, is a lot.”
Within a couple of hours, Batke was on Dr. Reddy’s table. Reddy spent two hours cleaning out Batke’s lungs including a clot that was nearly eight inches long.
“Within about an hour after the procedure I felt about 50 per cent better,” he said. “Within four to six hours later I felt I was like 90 per cent better.
“I was out of the hospital four days later feeling immediate relief from my chest.”
He returned to work almost immediately, but says the gravity of what happened isn’t lost on him.
“You start to carry on in life, but in the back of my mind the images and the experience get triggered,” he said. “I will often get emotional.”
“These are life-changing events,” Batke added. “Your perspective on life is changed immediately because your life had a chance of being taken away from you quite quickly.”
Dr. Reddy said most patients are under mild sedation during the procedure, which can last anywhere between 20 minutes and two hours, and added most patients feel immediate relief.
Since they’ve been doing this procedure here, he doesn’t know any patients that have needed open heart surgery for this type of clot.