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Gal Gadot's Dangerous Blood Clot Reveals Health Risk For Pregnant Women

Over the weekend, Gal Gadot revealed that the birth of her fourth daughter in early 2024 was accompanied by a life-threatening health crisis. In her eighth month of pregnancy, the 39-year-old "Wonder Woman" star was diagnosed with massive blood clot in her brain.

As Gadot also shared in an Instagram post on Sunday, she learned that she's not alone among pregnant women who have faced such a terrifying medical emergency. "I had no idea that 3 in 100,000 pregnant women in the 30s+ age group are diagnosed with CVT," Gadot said.

A CVT is a cerebral venous thrombosis that forms in the brain's venous sinuses and prevents blood from draining out of the brain, leading to a pressure build-up in the blood vessels and a stroke, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. While a CVT that occurs in pregnancy is "rare," it can be severe, according to a 2022 study published in World Journal of Clinical Cases.

However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that pregnant women are indeed at higher risk for other kinds of blood clots during pregnancy, childbirth and during the three-month period following delivery — especially those that form in the arms, legs or lungs.

The risk grows because a woman's blood begins to clot more easily to lessen blood loss during labor and delivery, the CDC said on its website. Pregnant women also may experience less blood flow to the legs later in pregnancy because the blood vessels around the pelvis are pressed upon by the growing baby.

The CDC said the risk for blood clots increases in women who are 35 and older and who experience complications in pregnancy and childbirth, who are immobile due for a prolonged period of time for bed rest and who give birth by C-section. Other risk factors include smoking, obesity and previous blood clots or an inherited clotting disorder.

According to Johns Hopkins Medicine, the symptoms for the kind of clot that Gadot suffered include headache, blurred vision, fainting or loss of consciousness, loss of control or movement in a part of the body or seizures. Someone suffering a CVT needs to get to an emergency room right away.

"For weeks, I had endured excruciating headaches that confined me to bed, until I finally underwent an MRI that revealed the terrifying truth," Gadot explained on Instagram.

"We rushed to the hospital, and within hours, I underwent emergency surgery," Gadot said, while explaining that her daughter, Ori, now 9 months old, "was born during that moment of uncertainty and fear."

While Gadot said that her daughter is healthy and she is now healed, this crisis taught her the importance of listening "to our bodies." She said, "pain, discomfort, or even subtle changes often carry deeper meaning, and being attuned to your body can be life saving."

By sharing her own story, Gadot said she hoped to "raise awareness and support others who may face something similar."

"In one moment, my family and I were faced with how fragile life can be," she said. "It was a stark reminder of how quickly everything can change, and in the midst of a difficult year, all I wanted was to hold on and live."

Gadot hinted that she required weeks of care after surgery and childbirth. She thanked "the extraordinary team of doctors"  at Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for "weeks of dedicated care," which helped her "make it through" and begin her road to recovery.

"Today, I am fully healed and filled with gratitude for the life I've been given back," she said.

Gadot initially announced the birth of her fourth child on Instagram in March, though she made no mention of the harrowing medical situation at the time, People reported.

"My sweet girl, welcome," Gadot captioned a photo of herself cradling Ori in a hospital bed at the time.

"The pregnancy was not easy and we made it through," she continued, adding, "You have brought so much light into our lives, living up to your name, Ori, which means 'my light' in Hebrew. Our hearts are full of gratitude. Welcome to the house of girls.. Daddy is pretty cool too."

Gadot, who is married to film producer Jaron Varsano, is also mom to Alma, 13, Maya, 7, and Daniella, 3.

Originally Published: December 30, 2024 at 11:33 AM PST

Warning Over Rare 'Christmas Disease' That Sees Victims Bleed To Death

The alternative term for Haemophilia B was actually named after a patient called Stephen Christmas (

Image: Getty Images)

You might be mistaken in thinking that the 'Christmas Disease' got its name from the festive season.

However, this alternative term for Haemophilia B was actually named after a patient called Stephen Christmas.

The five-year-old Canadian lad was diagnosed in 1952 when there was only one known type of haemophilia – a condition where people lack the specialised protein clotting factor VIII and are therefore at risk of severe bleeding. Then, coagulation researchers Rosemary Biggs and Robert McFarlane discovered that Christmas was missing not this blood clotting protein but a different one, clotting factor IX, and decided to name the new disease after him.

Both types of haemophilia are lifelong, inherited bleeding disorders and can be categorised as mild, moderate or severe. Haemophilia is caused by an inherited X-linked recessive trait, meaning the defective gene is located on the X chromosome.

This placement is significant: males are more likely to suffer from haemophilia than females because they typically only have one X chromosome, meaning if the IX gene is missing, there is no second copy (as with most females) of X to take over the work of making factor IX. Patients with haemophilia bleed longer but not faster than unaffected individuals.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) warns that bleeding in a vital organ like the brain can cause long-term problems, such as seizures and paralysis, and on rare occasions even death, reports the Mirror.

However, with the right treatment and care, there's no reason why Haemophilia B patients can't lead healthy, fulfilled lives – although most are advised to steer clear of activities like contact sports. Blood tests can diagnose haemophilia and determine its severity.

According to the NHS, most cases of Haemophilia B are severe and require preventative treatment, typically regular injections of a medicine called nonacog alfa (BeneFix), an engineered version of the clotting factor IX which patients lack. Genetic and genomic testing can identify the risk of passing the condition on to a child.

There are also tests during pregnancy that can diagnose haemophilia in the foetus, such as chorionic villus sampling (CVS) – where a sample of the placenta is tested for the haemophilia gene, usually between 11 and 14 weeks of pregnancy – but these procedures carry a small risk of miscarriage or premature labour. Signs and Symptoms of Haemophilia B.

Nebraska Medicine Administers Novel Gene Therapy To First Hemophilia Patient

Julie Anderson Omaha World-Herald

After more than four decades of infusing himself with the blood clotting factor his body can't make, Chad Stevens decided it was time to try something new.

Stevens, 63, suffers from hemophilia B, a bleeding disorder caused by a genetic mutation that affects production of a type of protein known as factor 9. Over the years, bleeds have damaged his joints. His ankles have been fused, his knees and elbows have severe damage. And successfully hitting a vein to infuse himself as he got older wasn't getting any easier.

In mid-October, Stevens traveled from his home town of Newdale, Idaho, to Omaha's Nebraska Medical Center, where he became the hospital's first patient to receive the first gene therapy approved for his condition.

Called Hemgenix, the therapy doesn't fix the damaged gene. Instead, a modified virus delivers the working gene to the liver, providing the instructions his body needs to make the factor on its own. The medical center is the first hospital in the region to become an administration site for the therapy, according to drug-maker CSL Behring.

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Since then, Stevens hasn't had any bleeds or needed to infuse clotting factor. He said he hopes the therapy will provide enough to take him from severe hemophilia to a milder version that might require infusions only for a severe trauma or surgery.

"That's really promising," Stevens said. "I hate to get too excited about it, because you never know what's going to happen. But I'm quite thrilled with it."

So is Dr. Alex Nester, a hematologist with Nebraska Medicine who specializes in benign or non-cancerous blood conditions, including bleeding disorders and sickle cell disease.

"It's incredible," he said. "It's (been) a dream in the hemophilia community for 20-plus years."

The treatment, approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2022, is one of a number of gene therapies that have trickled out in recent years for a variety of genetic conditions. The FDA approved a separate gene therapy for hemophilia A last year. The agency also has approved two gene therapies for sickle cell disease, another inherited blood disorder that causes red blood cells to become misshapen, block blood flow and cause painful episodes.

Kim Phelan, CEO of The Coalition for Hemophilia B, said the lasting advantages of the gene therapy include reduced joint damage, fewer hospitalizations and a better quality of life for people with hemophilia.

An estimated 7,000 people in the U.S. Have hemophilia B, and approximately 17,000 have hemophilia A, which involves a different blood clotting factor.

"After more than 25 years of anticipation and hope, individuals with hemophilia now have access to a groundbreaking therapy that offers the potential for greater independence and a more normalized life," she said.

Gene therapy at Nebraska Medicine

At Nebraska Medicine, the addition of the gene therapy builds on the work of the team involved in bone marrow transplants and cellular therapies, including CAR-T, or chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy. That treatment involves removing patients' immune cells from their bodies and genetically engineering them to recognize and attack their cancer.

Dr. Matthew Lunning, medical director of gene and cellular therapy at Nebraska Medicine, said earlier this fall that the team has used CAR-T to treat hundreds of lymphoma and leukemia patients since the late 2010s.

Earlier this year, he and his team used CAR-T for the first time to treat an Omaha woman with lupus, an autoimmune disease, as part of a multi-site clinical trial. He credited Nebraska Medicine's leaders for making the investment required to offer such ground-breaking therapies.

Still, gene therapies, according to news reports, have been somewhat slow to catch on. In the case of hemophilia, Nester said he suspects that may be a result of the complex modern history of the condition.

By the 1980s, he said, hemophilia patients who suffered trauma were given a concentrated form of the missing proteins when they needed help getting their blood to clot. But many contracted infections such as HIV and hepatitis C from contaminated blood products, which killed thousands of those with severe disease. Later, the products were purified but still were reserved for cases of active bleeding. As a result, older patients like Stevens suffered significant joint damage.

In the 1990s, researchers began producing a recombinant version of the missing proteins in hamster cells, similar to the way insulin is made. Children diagnosed with hemophilia could dose themselves with clotting factors to prevent bleeds, he said. That resulted in a generation with no bleeding episodes for years at a time and without the joint damage suffered by older patients.

"You don't need a lot of these factors to live a pretty normal life," said Nester, also an assistant professor of medicine in UNMC's oncology and hematology division.

That also means younger patients may have less interest for now in a more permanent solution, he said. Some also may be holding off for newer versions of the gene therapy that are in the pipeline.

Stevens said his parents, on the other hand, were told he probably wouldn't survive his teens. Between his mother and her three sisters, three had children with hemophilia, a total of seven. He was the youngest. He is now the sole survivor. Several died from bleeds and a couple died of complications of AIDs due to the contaminated clotting factor relied on at the time.

"It took a big toll on the hemophilia community," he said. "It just decimated it, really. So us older ones are pretty lucky to have survived all of that."

Issues with earlier blood products, however, also have made older patients skeptical about new treatments. "We like to wait and see how the products are doing out there before you jump on it," he said.

Cost of treatment can run into the millions

Patients also have to weigh the cost. The price for the one-time treatment reportedly was set at $3.5 million.

A spokesperson for CSL Behring said the company has seen an acceleration in the number of people being infused with the therapy since its approval, which the company attributes to its outreach to patients and work with insurers. Some 90% now cover the therapy, and the company also offers a program to help patients with copays. She declined to say, however, how many patients have received the therapy.

But Nester said clotting factors also are costly. Depending on the patient, the source of their factor and their insurance, it may run a half a million dollars a year "to keep nothing from happening," he said.

Meanwhile, he said, researchers have seen that the majority of patients who have received the gene therapy are making 10% or more of the normal levels of the missing clotting factor even five years after being treated. That means their bodies are producing at least the preventative dose.

"Patients still may have a bleeding episode after twisting their ankle or maybe needing a dose before surgery," Nester said, "but, generally speaking, spontaneous bleeds or bleeds associated with minor trauma are gone."

Not every hemophilia patient will qualify for the treatment, however, he said. Patients can't have antibodies to either the virus or the factor they're missing.

Stevens said his infusions probably cost closer to three-quarters of a million dollars a year. So far, the cost of his gene therapy has been covered. Previously employed in banking in Boise, he retired and applied for Social Security disability benefits on the advice of his doctor after his pain and mobility issues had made it nearly impossible for him to get out of his chair at work.

He moved back to Newdale, population 325, in eastern Idaho. But he didn't like being on disability, because he wasn't giving back. He was elected to the City Council and appointed mayor, a post he continues to hold.

"It was just a pleasure to be contributing again," Stevens said.

Since receiving the therapy, he said, he seems to be moving a little better, and his knee isn't bothering him as much. Since the damage was done at an earlier age, he doesn't think the therapy will do much to repair it.

"But if we can keep it from getting any worse," Stevens said, "that's the goal."

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