Definition of "embolism" []

• Obstruction or occlusion of a blood vessel by an embolus. (noun)
• An embolus. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Medical experts say the incidence of DVT followed by pulmonary embolism, which is fatal about 30% of the time, is increasing in the hospital."
• "And so they said, when you have that, you can have a complication known as a pulmonary embolism, which is where a blood clot goes to the lungs and so the lungs can't work any more."
• "And out of that, 300,000 will die from a the pulmonary embolism, which is essentially the clot traveling to the lungs."