A 60-year-old client experienced a sudden onset of chest pain and shortness of breath and was subsequently diagnosed with a pulmonary embolism in the emergency department. The client has been started on an intravenous heparin infusion. How does this drug achieve therapeutic effect?

By inactivating clotting factors and thus stopping the coagulation cascade

Explanation:

Pulmonary embolism is a medical condition in which blood clot gets stuck in a  lung arteries which block the blood flow in that part of the lung. This can cause sudden shortness of breath and chest pain in the person.

Heparin is the drug that works as anticoagulants and stops the blood to form clot. In infusion therapy, the drug is administered in the arteries through a catheter or needle.  Heparin inactivates clotting factors like prothrombin and thus stop the cascade of coagulation thus achieve therapeutic effect.