Medical Malpractice: Failure to Diagnose Heart Disease

It is common knowledge that across the county heart disease is the number one cause of death.  The sooner heart disease is diagnosed and treated, the better the outlook is for the patient. Symptoms of coronary artery disease is not diagnosed because the patient doesn't see a doctor regularly or fails to report his concerns to a health care professional.  However, there are also times when the patient does report his symptoms, but the doctor fails to properly diagnose, or even fails to diagnose the symptoms as signs of heart disease. It is possible that this medical negligence could be the legal liability of the doctor and it reaches the level of medical malpractice. This failure to diagnose medical malpractice is quite often the result.

Symptoms of Heart Disease

Diagnosing coronary heart disease usually depends upon how advanced the disease is in the patient.  When a patient notices a pain in their chest, it could be because there is not adequate space in the coronary arterial walls that deliver blood to the heart.  This is known as "angina" and is a common symptom that a heart attack is imminent.  However, there are many cases when no pain at all presents itself to indicate that the patient has heart disease, so the illness continues to restrict the blood flow to the heart for years.

At some point, the patient will experience the symptoms of heart disease, or possibly suffer a heart attack.  If the problem continues undiagnosed, the patient will eventually experience a catastrophic heart attack.

Tests That Reveal Heart Disease

If a doctor suspects that a patient has symptoms of coronary heat disease he should order one or more of the following tests:

• ECG (Electrocardiogram)
• Echocardiogram
• Angiogram
• Exercise Stress Test

These tests are generally able to indicate if not identify that the patient has heart disease.

A Doctor's Medical Negligence

A doctor can be held liable for medical negligence if he misreads test results, doesn't correctly interpret the symptoms of coronary heart disease, or fails to order appropriate tests when symptoms should have demanded he do so.  He can also be responsible for negligence if he delays diagnosing, or testing for heart disease when symptoms indicated he should have done so immediately.

Medical negligence means that there was a legal duty of care due the patient that the doctor breached in some way which directly caused damage to the patient.  If a doctor negligently treats a patient and it causes injury, like untreated heart disease, he will be liable for that damages the patient incurs from that point forward.

Filing Medical Malpractice for Failure to Diagnose Heart Disease

If a patient is the victim of medical malpractice/negligence, he/she has the right to file a medical malpractice suit against the medical professional or institution responsible.  The court system provides a way for the patient to receive compensation for the damage and injury incurred by the medical professional's negligent medical treatment.

If the victim of medical malpractice for failure to diagnose heart disease dies as a result of this negligence, the surviving family members can bring suit in behalf of the patient for both medical malpractice and wrongful death.

Contact a Medical Malpractice Attorney

Medical malpractice attorneys review cases before filing them in court.  They quite often employ medical professionals to review the case before hand to ensure that it has merit and will be successful in court, or in negotiations.  The best thing you can do to protect your rights in a medical malpractice suit is to contact an attorney who specializes in this field.