The picture above is of a clot that was seconds away from killing a patient.The 67 year old male came into the ER complaining of epistaxis. He just had a nasal surgery earlier that week and was on warfarin..During the initial exam of his posterior pharynx some bright red blood was seen but that was it. They placed a posterior packing and had the patient sitting up vertically slightly leaning forward.Shortly after, the wife comes out into the hall and says my husband cannot breathe!This is the actual clot they sucked out of the back of his posterior oropharyx occluding his trachea! Photo by @paboards
Is this the actual clot or is this the packing with clot attached to it?