re: Spanish professional golfer Luis Vega was paralyzed from the waist down after a blood clot

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Explain how “a vein just burst”

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In this context, "burst" merely means that the blood vessel ruptured or leaked.

The doctor who performed the surgery diagnosed the problem as a spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma, a spontaneous bleed in the spine: a blood vessel ruptured and bled into the space between the vertebrae and spinal cord, the blood formed a pool of partially clotted blood.

In this case, the clot pressed on the golfer's spinal cord causing the paralysis. Surgery removed the clot which eliminated the paralysis.

Spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma is a rare event, about 1:1mm per year. These events happened pre-Covid vax, and they will continue post-Covid vax.

Hematomas (pools of clotted or partially clotted blood) in general, are not rare at all.

Nor is it rare for blood vessels to rupture, or hemorrhage. Blood vessels hemorrhage for many reasons, not all of them related to trauma. For one small example, brain aneurysms that burst are relatively common, approximately 1:15k per year.

There are case reports of weightlifters developing spontaneous epidural hematomas during intense workouts. Mr. Vega is a professional golfer. It is a well-known and accepted fact that playing golf puts tremendous torque and stress on the back and spine. It is logical to deduce that Mr. Vega ruptured a blood vessel playing his sport.