Misdiagnosis or Failure to Diagnose Heart Disease

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and across the world, and early diagnosis and treatment is a critical factor in the mortality rate of those suffering heart disease. Often times, heart disease such as coronary artery disease goes undiagnosed due to a patients not seeing a doctor regularly, or expressing concerns about his or her health to their doctor.

What happens when a patient DOES see their doctor and heart disease remains undiagnosed? It is possible that negligent medical care could lead to heart disease such as CAD going undiagnosed and untreated. If this occurs, the doctor may be held legally liable and sued by the patient or the patients family members for medical negligence and medical malpractice.

Diagnosing Heart Disease

How a doctor diagnoses coronary heart disease depends on the stage to which the disease has developed in the patient. Most commonly, patients will notice a pain in their chest due to the lack of space in the coronary artery walls that supply blood to the heart. This is known as angina, and is a common symptom of an impending heart attack.

Other times, however, there may be no pain whatsoever in a patient with heart disease, and the illness can go on restricting the coronary artery for many years or even decades.

Eventually though, the patient will get to a point where a heart attack and it’s symptoms will develop, and sooner or later they will experience a potentially catastrophic heart attack.

Tests That May Show Heart Disease

The following types of tests should be ordered by a doctor for any patient who is thought to have symptoms of coronary heart disease:

• Echocardiogram
• Excursive or Exercise Stress Test
• Angiogram/Angiography
• ECG (Electrocardiogram)

These are some of the most common test a doctor will order to determine if his or her patient may be suffering from coronary heart disease.

Doctors Liability for Failure to Diagnose

If a doctor is found to have misread test results, failed to order tests when conditions should have called for it, or misinterpreted symptoms of coronary heart disease, then their may be potential for medical negligence. Additionally, an untimely or delayed diagnosis of coronary heart disease may also be grounds for medical negligence.

Medical negligence is a legal term referring to a doctors deviation from accepted medical standards of care, and a breach of legal duty to the patient.

If a doctor is found to have negligently treated a patient, and this negligence caused injury, such as untreated heart disease, then he or she will be liable for all resulting damages done unto the patient.

Filing a Suit for Damages

In cases of medical negligence, the patient has the legal right to file a medical malpractice lawsuit against the doctor or treating hospital. This is a way to use the system of justice to demand compensation from the doctor or hospital for all injuries or damages caused the patient by the negligent medical treatment.

In the worst cases of undiagnosed coronary heart disease, or coronary artery disease, the untreated patient may suffer a massive heart attack and die. In these types of cases, family members can bring a suit on behalf of the lost loved one for medical malpractice as well as wrongful death.

Only an experienced medical malpractice lawyer is qualified to handle such complex cases, and they also have medical doctors on staff or readily available in order to assess a patients case and determine if in fact medical malpractice and negligence did occur, and exactly how it lead to an undue injury or wrongful death of a patient.