Medical Negligence Lawyers

HAZLETON, CONYNGHAM VALLEY, BLOOMSBURG, FRACKVILLE, NORTHEAST PA

Failure to Diagnose a Heart Attack

Located in the beautiful Sugarloaf Valley of Pennsylvania since 1978, the Falvello Law Firm has years of experience representing those who have suffered injuries as a result of a health care professional's failure to diagnose a heart attack.

Each year nearly 7 million people in the country visit emergency rooms with heart attack symptoms including the most obvious symptom - chest pains. Since heart attack symptoms are similar to a number of other non-life threatening conditions, some doctors may fail to appreciate the severity of the situation and misdiagnose the patient's medical condition.

Some of the most common mistakes made during the diagnosis of a heart attack include:

• Failure to diagnose a heart attack in younger patients
• Failure to consider a heart condition in women
• Improper reading of a patient's ECG or EKG

A doctor may also fail to properly assess:

• The patient’s age
• Menopause
• Any previous heart conditions
• Medical history and drug interactions
• Exercise, alcohol, drug or tobacco use 

When patients enter a hospital emergency room seeking medical attention, doctors and staff have a professional duty to perform all the necessary tests that will either diagnose a heart attack or rule it out. When doctors put profit over patient care, a missed diagnosis may result.
Proper diagnosis by a health care professional may require a complete medical and social history, an EKG and an ECG to discover abnormalities in the heart and blood work to determine the presence of specific blood enzymes that would indicate if a heart attack were in progress. Premature discharge from care, including from the emergency room of a hospital, could result in severe heart damage or even death. There are also treatments that can be provided which can prevent heart damage and death, such as the use of clot-dissolving drugs.
Because the failure to diagnose a heart attack can result in sudden death or debilitating injury, a missed heart attack diagnosis garners the highest medical malpractice payout among all malpractice cases. It is also, unfortunately, the most common form of medical malpractice in the United States.
Failing to diagnose a heart attack is a leading cause of medical malpractice lawsuits. If you or a loved one has been the victim of misdiagnosed heart attack, please contact our medical negligence lawyers today for more information.