In the wake of a colleague’s tragedy, Senate set to vote on blood clot study group

The brand-new house in the small subdivision bursts with promise and plans, knickknacks denoting milestones met and one color blending seamlessly with the next. Emily Adkins was like that. At 23, her major decisions revolved around how many of her dreams she could cram into the decades ahead, not so much what they were.

She knew, for example, she was on track to succeed her father, Douglas Adkins, in running the two senior residential communities he owned. At the time, she ran human resources, which seemed like a good fit for her outgoing, take-charge personality.

Maybe she would follow in her mother’s footsteps and try her hand at political office. Janet Adkins, a former state Representative, now serves as Nassau County’s Elections Supervisor.

None of those things can materialize now. Emily died on Oct. 21 of a pulmonary embolism, the result of a blood clot while recovering from a broken ankle, her parents said. The fallout from this emotional bomb is still raining down.

Besides shock and grief, the effects include a state investigation into Emily’s care, a nonprofit for medical students called Emily’s Promise and a legislative bill.

The Florida Senate is scheduled to vote today on the Blood Clot and Pulmonary Embolism Policy Workgroup (CS/SB 612). Filed by Sen. Clay Yarborough, it greenlights a volunteer effort to examine the prevention of deaths from blood clots. A version of the bill has already won broad bipartisan support in the House. That willingness to examine standards of care and their enforcement could well extend to Gov. Ron DeSantis, whose sister, Christina DeSantis, 30, died in 2015 of an embolism stemming from a blood clot.

More than 100,000 Americans a year die as a result of blood clots, said Leslie Lake, President of the National Blood Clot Alliance. Another 900,000 sustain long-term health effects from clots. Many of those deaths and injuries would not have occurred with more vigilant screening, she contends.

“The incidence rate is going up, not down,” Lake told floridapolitics.com in an email, “and we simply must spread the word about blood clots to prevent premature deaths.”

The Adkinses have also founded a nonprofit, Emily’s Promise, which offers $5,000 scholarships to medical students. They hope the overall legislative effort, the Emily Adkins Blood Clot Prevention Act, will spark more effective oversight for vulnerable patients nationwide.

“If it saves one person, we will have done our job,” Douglas Adkins said. Meanwhile, he and Janet have complained to the state Department of Health over the care Emily received at Jacksonville’s Mayo Clinic. The department’s prosecution services unit is investigating. A call to Dr. Shane Shapiro, her orthopedist at Mayo Clinic, was not immediately returned.