A physician’s negligent failure to diagnose a heart attack in progress or misdiagnosis concerning a life threatening medical condition as serious as heart disease can result in debilitating and permanent emotional and physical injury including premature death. Misdiagnosis of a heart condition can also cause the patient and his family to endure severe financial burdens such as lost wages due to disability and huge medical bills arising from the improper medical procedures and treatments.
Heart Attack 101
A heart attack, or acute myocardial infarction, causes damage to the heart muscle for the reason that during the attack the heart does not receive enough oxygen to function properly. Often a coronary artery will have become blocked and some area of the heart is then denied oxygen causing that specific heart tissue to begin to die, or myocardial necrosis. The extent of the damage to the heart tissue depends on the severity of the oxygen blockage and the amount of time the blockage persists. Damaged heart tissue can cause permanent injury to the heart muscle including such conditions as cardiac arrhythmias or abnormal heart beats or heart rhythms which result in ineffective pumping of blood to the body which may then lead to sudden cardiac arrest, and if the heart then totally stops, death.
Misdiagnosis of Acute Myocardial Infarction
Unfortunately it is all too easy for an emergency room physician to misdiagnose a heart attack. Heart attacks present in a variety of ways and sometimes even diagnostic EKG results can read within normal limits during an active heart attack. As a result patients might be misdiagnosed with gastrointestinal disorders, musculoskeletal pain, psychological panic attacks, or respiratory ailments like pneumonia. The symptoms of a heart attack depend on which area of the heart is affected and may range from very mild weakness, fatigue, dizziness, backache or a feeling of indigestion to symptoms such as severe chest pain, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, blue lips and loss of consciousness.
Physician Error
Even the most advanced diagnostic and therapeutic techniques are worthless if a doctor never bothers to use any of them. This can happen due to medical provider negligence or just a simple lack of patient medical insurance coverage. In general, an emergency room physician should never discharge a patient complaining of chest pain without making all indicated diagnostic tests to fully determine the cause of any heart condition symptomatic discomfort. The doctor should order, read and fully understand the results of the patient’s EKG and other appropriate diagnostic test results and if medication is prescribed, the effect of that medication on the patient’s cardiovascular condition must be considered.
Getting Legal Help
If you or a member of your family has suffered an injury due to either an undiagnosed heart condition or heart attack or a misdiagnosed heart condition or heart attack it may be important to discuss the circumstances which gave rise to that injury with a medical malpractice attorney. Significant lost wages, costs of medical care and multiple hospitalizations may be recoverable where the instigation of legal action is determined to be indicated. Actions for heart attack related wrongful death, pain and suffering, loss of consortium with other family members may also be considered by the medical malpractice attorney after a comprehensive review of facts detailing the negligent diagnosis or complete failure to make a heart disease related diagnosis.
