A healthcare worker who blamed bruises on her leg on hospital machinery has revealed they were potentially deadly blood clots, possibly linked to her contraceptive pill. Summer Mason, 24, a trainee perfusionist from Blackpool, Lancashire, first noticed two bruises on her left leg last month and dismissed them as knocks from life support equipment at work.
However, the red marks darkened over several days, and after a third appeared a week later, she went to A&E, where she was diagnosed with blood clots. Doctors told her the clots were a result of taking a combined oral contraceptive pill.
Diagnosis and treatment
Summer visited her GP on August 21 after the 'bruises' became hot to the touch and kept changing colour. She was diagnosed with thrombophlebitis, an inflammatory condition where a blood clot blocks one or more veins, usually in the legs. Though deaths are rare, complications can occur if a clot travels to the lungs, causing a pulmonary embolism, which can be fatal.
Hours after the initial diagnosis, Summer went to A&E because a third clot appeared. She said: "They kept going slightly darker and then they'd go red again, every day they'd look a slightly different colour but it still felt like a massive lump under my leg. It was hot to touch and really painful."
Contraceptive pill link
The NHS lists blood clots as a potential side effect of the combined pill due to increased oestrogen levels, which raise clot risk. Summer had used the pill for four years from age 17 to 21, took a two-year break, then restarted last October. She said: "The doctors said the blood clots were caused by me taking the contraceptive pill. I was quite worried."
She added: "When you get given the pill [you think there's a lower chance of clots] if you've got no family history, if you've not got high blood pressure and if you don't drink and don't smoke. I fit those categories so I didn't think I'd ever have something like this."
Warning to others
Summer has stopped taking the pill and was prescribed a heparinoid cream to help break down the clots. She is unsure whether she will take it again and urges other women to seek medical advice if they notice similar symptoms. She said: "My advice would be if you see something like that, don't just leave it - because that's what I did, I just left it to heal thinking it was a bruise. Go and get it sorted as soon as."
