In 2003, while covering the war in Iraq for NBC News, journalist David Bloom died of a blood clot that formed in his leg and traveled to his lungs.
In memory of Bloom, a U.S. Senate bill in 2005, sponsored by Arlen Specter (R-PA), declared March Deep Vein Thrombosis Awareness Month.
In 2009, Representatives Lois Capps (D-CA) and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) came together in an bipartisan effort to reinforce March as a time to focus on blood clots. Capps’ husband Walter died of a pulmonary embolism (PE) in 2006, and a friend and mentor of McMorris Rodgers, Rep. Jennifer Dunn, died of a PE in 2007.
