Solving a Medical Mystery to Potentially Save a Life

When 39-year-old Alexis Day came to EvergreenHealth's Emergency Department with severe abdominal pain, it took detective work worthy of an episode of CSI to figure out what was causing the problem.

It was detective work that would save Day's life.

A CT scan showed that part of Alexis' spleen had died because the blood flow to it had been cut off.

That answered the question of what was causing the pain, but the mystery remained regarding what had cut off the blood flow in the first place.

It was very unusual to see this in an otherwise healthy young woman without any trauma or injury to the spleen.

Potentially Life-Threatenting

It was a mystery that needed to be solved, inspiring the Emergency Department team to brainstorm together and come up with possible causes.

An echocardiogram – an ultrasound of the heart – was ordered to take a closer look. That's when the case took a surprising twist.

Echocardiographer Stacy Bautista was able to identify the problem as she performed the echo and knew right away that something was wrong.

"It wasn't a blood clot – but two large tumors – inside her heart," Bautista says. She called for Alexis' doctor to take a look.

While cardiac tumors are very unusual, their presence explained what had happened. When you get a tumor in your heart, small pieces of it or blood clots that form around it can break loose and travel to other parts of the body, including the brain where it could cause a stroke.

Luckily for Alexis, this initial clot went to her spleen – and while losing part of the spleen is pretty painful, it's not life-threatening.

With the mystery solved, Alexis was scheduled for open-heart surgery the following day to remove the tumors before any other pieces could break loose and cause potentially life-threatening complications.

Medical Expertise

It wasn't just luck that helped the EvergreenHealth Emergency Department crack this medical mystery – it took experienced medical detective work.

"An echocardiogram is not a standard test for a patient with abdominal pain," Bautista explains, "and you don't normally think a problem with the spleen is connected to the heart. So, sometimes you have to do some sleuthing because it can be a matter of life and death."

"Everyone involved really did save my life," Alexis says. "They were so on top of everything and were very aggressive about following their hunches, thank goodness. I'm just so glad their detective work paid off!"

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