Misdiagnosed Heart Attack - Medical Malpractice Lawyer Explains
Today's topic is failure to diagnose heart attacks. What are they and why are they important? The failure to recognize a heart attack has significant, dramatic implications to your patient. If a heart attack occurs, it can kill off a excellent portion of the heart. And if it's not known either immediately just before it happens or at the time it is happening, the result could be devastating.
Let me tell you about a case I recently handled involving a young man and also a failure to diagnose a heart attack. The patient created chest pain and went to his local emergency room. While from the emergency room they hooked him up to a cardiac monitor, and they drew his blood and did all types of tests.
They realized that they required additional time to be able to correctly evaluate to determine whether he was, in fact, using a heart attack. The hospital was so concerned that they decided to admit him towards the hospital to run more tests. They had been going to get him do a stress test. They were heading to acquire an echocardiogram, that may be as being a sonogram from the heart. They have been heading to draw blood over a normal basis to determine whether specific enzyme levels had been rising, indicate that he may well have a heart attack.
So what went wrong with this patient's care? It wasn't the testing that had been ordered. All of those people testes were appropriate and it was very good medical process to perform that. The difficulty arose once the doctors had been interpreting those people particular tests. They were interpreted incorrectly. In fact, the computers have been reading abnormalities in these particular tests, but the doctors who were seeking at them blew it off and stated not a big deal. That's artifact. That's insignificant. We don't care about that. The patient is normal. Everything is fine.
He followed up with his cardiologist several weeks later and he told him he was nevertheless acquiring some chest pain. The cardiologist by no means bothered to have the diagnostic tests that was done at the hospital and based upon his personal testing realized how the patient was just fine. He told the patient to arrive back in a month. We'll examine you again.
The following month the patient returned, as directed, and again, he had the exact same time of complaints. You know, I have chest pain. I'm feeling uncomfortable. I don't know what is going on. Again, the doctor pooh-poohed it and stated not to worry, all of the testing previous to show you happen to be fine.
The third time it happened again. He came back towards office made the complaints. The doctor stated not to worry about it, you happen to be fine. A few days right after the last visit towards cardiologist, the patient created severe chest pain and trouble breathing. He named an ambulance and was rushed to his local emergency room, which was exactly the location exactly where he have been taken to earlier, a few months earlier, being fully evaluated. Once the doctors hooked him as much as all the monitors inside emergency room, they identified he was with a massive heart attack and by that thing there was quite smaller they could do to save a excellent part of his heart.
It turns out more than the next few days another tests revealed how the patient had 3 arteries, three major coronary arteries that have been severely blocked. He had three blockages. And had this been identified three or four months earlier, the patient could have had an elective triple bypass surgery, which would have prevented what's knows as ischemia, a cutoff or a lack of blood flow towards the heart, what caused him to have this massive heart attack. A majority of his heart was killed off, as a result of the lack of blood flow towards the heart. And as a result of that this patient suffered every complication recognized to mankind. So significantly so, that he ultimately was told that he required to get a heart transplant.
This patient, unfortunately, is physically incapable of producing any type of activity. He gets tired just from walking across the room. He needs assistance to complete all forms of daily activities. And it is tragic due to the fact when we went to investigate and looked back at those people medical records, we had doctors and experts in cardiology contemplate those people tests and they told us that these have been clearly abnormal. And even the computer confirmed that they have been abnormal, and also the doctors should have identified this. This was completely preventable. He could have had elective surgery, which would have prevented the heart attack and he would were just fine. Unfortunately, for this young man and his family he wasn't.
Let me tell you about a case I recently handled involving a young man and also a failure to diagnose a heart attack. The patient created chest pain and went to his local emergency room. While from the emergency room they hooked him up to a cardiac monitor, and they drew his blood and did all types of tests.
They realized that they required additional time to be able to correctly evaluate to determine whether he was, in fact, using a heart attack. The hospital was so concerned that they decided to admit him towards the hospital to run more tests. They had been going to get him do a stress test. They were heading to acquire an echocardiogram, that may be as being a sonogram from the heart. They have been heading to draw blood over a normal basis to determine whether specific enzyme levels had been rising, indicate that he may well have a heart attack.
So what went wrong with this patient's care? It wasn't the testing that had been ordered. All of those people testes were appropriate and it was very good medical process to perform that. The difficulty arose once the doctors had been interpreting those people particular tests. They were interpreted incorrectly. In fact, the computers have been reading abnormalities in these particular tests, but the doctors who were seeking at them blew it off and stated not a big deal. That's artifact. That's insignificant. We don't care about that. The patient is normal. Everything is fine.
He followed up with his cardiologist several weeks later and he told him he was nevertheless acquiring some chest pain. The cardiologist by no means bothered to have the diagnostic tests that was done at the hospital and based upon his personal testing realized how the patient was just fine. He told the patient to arrive back in a month. We'll examine you again.
The following month the patient returned, as directed, and again, he had the exact same time of complaints. You know, I have chest pain. I'm feeling uncomfortable. I don't know what is going on. Again, the doctor pooh-poohed it and stated not to worry, all of the testing previous to show you happen to be fine.
The third time it happened again. He came back towards office made the complaints. The doctor stated not to worry about it, you happen to be fine. A few days right after the last visit towards cardiologist, the patient created severe chest pain and trouble breathing. He named an ambulance and was rushed to his local emergency room, which was exactly the location exactly where he have been taken to earlier, a few months earlier, being fully evaluated. Once the doctors hooked him as much as all the monitors inside emergency room, they identified he was with a massive heart attack and by that thing there was quite smaller they could do to save a excellent part of his heart.
It turns out more than the next few days another tests revealed how the patient had 3 arteries, three major coronary arteries that have been severely blocked. He had three blockages. And had this been identified three or four months earlier, the patient could have had an elective triple bypass surgery, which would have prevented what's knows as ischemia, a cutoff or a lack of blood flow towards the heart, what caused him to have this massive heart attack. A majority of his heart was killed off, as a result of the lack of blood flow towards the heart. And as a result of that this patient suffered every complication recognized to mankind. So significantly so, that he ultimately was told that he required to get a heart transplant.
This patient, unfortunately, is physically incapable of producing any type of activity. He gets tired just from walking across the room. He needs assistance to complete all forms of daily activities. And it is tragic due to the fact when we went to investigate and looked back at those people medical records, we had doctors and experts in cardiology contemplate those people tests and they told us that these have been clearly abnormal. And even the computer confirmed that they have been abnormal, and also the doctors should have identified this. This was completely preventable. He could have had elective surgery, which would have prevented the heart attack and he would were just fine. Unfortunately, for this young man and his family he wasn't.
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