Mahjong players beware: Deep-vein thrombosis not just from airplanes

A 40-year-old woman in Hunan province has been diagnosed with “mahjong-related deep-vein thrombosis”, having spent eight consecutive hours sitting motionless and playing the Chinese tile game with only a “small amount” of a soft drink for energy. The woman went to doctors with a painful swelling in her left leg, and an ultrasound showed the thrombosis, a severe blod clot. Having been hospitalized for two weeks, the woman is now on maintenance therapy with warfarin, a blood thinner. Whether she has laid off the mahjong marathons is, however, unknown.