The soft blue lumps that give blue rubber bleb nevus syndrome its name are usually treated as a cosmetic curiosity. The real danger is supposed to be internal and slow, a decades-long drip of blood from malformed veins in the gut. A case report published in January in Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology describes a very different ending.
A 31-year-old woman died of hemorrhagic shock after an emergency tracheostomy. The incision went through vascular malformations nobody knew were there, and the bleeding could not be stopped. The case was worked up by pathologists at the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office in Chicago, with a co-author from the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy.
