Female student had cardiac arrest after 31 hours of sitting on a hard chair

The incident of Tieu Asia, a female first-year university student, having a cardiac arrest due to “economy compartment syndrome” after 31 hours on a hard-seat train is becoming a topic of special interest on Chinese social networks about the health risks of long-distance travel, according to Guangming Daily February 27.

At around 5:00 a.m. on February 21, Little Asia finished its trip from Chengdu to Guangdong East Station. As soon as she stepped off the train, the female freshman collapsed, lost consciousness and went into cardiac arrest. The local hospital medical team had to work continuously for 6 hours to save the girl’s life. Before the departure day, Tieu Asia showed signs of chest pain but still decided to leave. Prolonged immobility, exhaustion and lack of water turn the trip into a life-threatening incident.

Doctor Hou Hongwei, Head of Cardiology Department of Zhongshan Hospital (Zhejiang), diagnosed the patient facing deep vein thrombosis. He explained that this phenomenon often attacks people who sit motionless for too long in narrow spaces such as airplanes, buses or trains. Lack of exercise causes the “muscle pumps” in the calves to stop working, causing blood circulation to decrease by more than 50%. The hot and dry vehicle environment combined with the lazy habit of drinking water thickens the blood, easily creating blood clots in the lower limbs.

Many people mistakenly think that thrombosis only threatens the elderly, but in reality this disease attacks all ages. Medical experts cited the example of a 39-year-old man who collapsed on Hangzhou Street last year due to a massive pulmonary embolism after 14 hours of sedentary sitting on the train. Dr. Hau compared the blood clot in his leg to a “ticking bomb”. When they peel off and flow through the bloodstream to the lungs, they cause blockage, pushing the death rate to more than 30% in just the first hour of illness.

In addition to groups that often travel long distances, office workers who sit for long periods of time, pregnant women, obese people, people taking hormonal drugs or with underlying medical conditions all face a high risk of getting the disease. To prevent risks, doctors advise passengers to proactively exercise lightly or stretch their ankles in place every one to two hours. People need to drink about 200 ml of filtered water every hour to maintain stable blood viscosity, and stay away from alcohol and coffee to prevent dehydration.