Disseminated intravascular coagulation

Disseminated intravascular coagulation is a serious acquired disorder, meaning it shows up over the course of a person's life rather than being inherited. What defines it is where the clotting happens: instead of switching on at one particular spot, it switches on throughout the vascular system, the network of vessels blood travels through. Because it fires everywhere at once, microthrombi form, tiny clots sitting inside those vessels.

The real trouble comes later, and it is close to the opposite of what you would expect. Clotting consumes supplies: platelets, the cell fragments that plug a leak, and clotting factors, the proteins that build that plug. If the clotting stays switched on and keeps advancing, those supplies can run down, like a pantry that empties out because the cooking never stops. That is why bleeding and organ damage can show up in disseminated intravascular coagulation.