Failure to Diagnose Heart Disease

Graves Disease  

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States. In fact, each year 1.5 million heart attacks occur in our country, claiming the lives of around 500,000 people.

With millions of Americans affected by heart disease, it is medical community’s responsibility to accurately identify signs of heart disease in the patients they examine.

Like most diseases, early detection of heart disease significantly increases you chance for survival. In general, most doctors and health care specialists know the signs and symptoms of heart disease and can diagnose your condition. However, when these practitioners ignore your symptoms, or misidentify them for another ailment, the outcome can be devastating.

What it leads to

A doctor’s failure to diagnose cardiovascular disease can allow a patient’s illness to go unchecked for months or years. It could also allow a disease that might have been effectively treated may spread to other systems and cause grave consequences for the patient. Both of these situations can lead to increased illness and death.

True, it isn’t always easy to diagnose heart disease. Still, too many people die each year after leaving the emergency room, having been told their chest pain was something less serious.

Misdiagnosis

If a doctor makes an incorrect diagnosis of your condition, you are often subjected to unnecessary tests and treatments and the ultimate delay of treatment your true condition.

Signs of an impending heart attack

Symptoms of an impending heart attack can include discomfort in the chest that lasts for a few minutes, or chest pain that comes and goes. You may feel:

· Uncomfortable pressure, like squeezing in your chest

· Painful sensations

· Discomfort in the upper part of the body like the back, neck, or jaw

· Pain in one or both arms

· Discomfort in your stomach, similar to indigestion

· Shortness of breath (with or without chest discomfort)

· Nausea

· Lightheadedness

· Cold sweats

Risk factors

There are several well-known risk factors for coronary heart disease. These include:

· Older age

· Gender (male more common than female, although female risk rises with age)

· Heredity

· Race

· Smoking

· Elevated blood cholesterol

· High blood pressure

· Lack of exercise

· Obesity

· Diabetes mellitus

· Physical or emotional stress

· Excessive alcohol

Proper diagnosis

A doctor or health care professional’s diagnosis 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.

If you are prematurely discharged from care, including from the hospital’s emergency department, this could result in severe heart damage or death. There are also other treatments that are used in heart damage prevention, such as clot-dissolving drugs called Tissue Plasminogen Activators or “TPA.”

If you or a loved one has been injured, or if you’ve lost a loved one due to medical negligence, our medical malpractice attorneys will diligently seek answers through free medical expert case evaluations. We aggressively pursue proper compensation through litigation.