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Robert Hamilton: How Can a Blood Clot in the Leg Cause a Stroke?

Robert Hamilton/LinkedIn

Oct 23, 2026, 07:37

Robert Hamilton: How Can a Blood Clot in the Leg Cause a Stroke?

Robert Hamilton, Chief Executive Officer of NeuraSignal, shared a post on LinkedIn:

“How can a blood clot in the leg cause a stroke?

In my previous post about Jalen Hurts’ reported pulmonary emboli, I mentioned that a clot could take a different route and reach the brain. I wanted to explain that connection.

Normally, a clot that breaks loose from a deep vein in the leg travels into the right side of the heart and then toward the lungs. If it lodges in a pulmonary artery, it causes a pulmonary embolism.

A patent foramen ovale, or PFO, creates a possible alternate route.

It is a flap-like opening between the heart’s two upper chambers. About one in four adults has one, and most never experience a problem.

But when pressure conditions allow blood to cross from right to left, a clot can pass through that opening, bypass the lungs, and enter the arterial circulation. If it reaches and blocks an artery supplying the brain, it can cause an ischemic stroke.

This is called paradoxical embolism. The graphic shows the two routes.

To be clear, I am explaining a general mechanism, not suggesting that Hurts has a PFO.

This connection is one reason my work in stroke has made me interested in what happens well beyond the brain. Sometimes, understanding a stroke means tracing the problem back through the heart and into the veins.

My original post is linked in the comments. Wishing Jalen a full recovery.”

Robert Hamilton: How Can a Blood Clot in the Leg Cause a Stroke?