Failure To Diagnose Heart Attack
When heart attack is diagnosed quickly and treated properly
the chances of survival, recovery, and even returning to a normal,
healthy life are very high. Failure to diagnose heart attack
or delayed diagnosis of heart attack can mean delayed treatment
or no treatment at all. Patients with undiagnosed heart attacks
are typically sent home from emergency rooms without treatment
and often have another, more serious, heart attack within a few
hours or a few days. When treatment is delayed, the chances of
survival or healthy recovery drop steeply.
Heart Attack Symptoms
What were once considered atypical symptoms are now known to
be quite common, especially among women. Although chest pain
is a common symptom, doctors now know that many patients have
heart attacks without experiencing pain. Doctors should never
take these heart attack symptoms lightly, even when a patient
is not complaining of pain:
- Shortness of breath
- Weakness
- Dizziness
- Nausea
- Cold sweat
- Unexplained fatigue
- Anxiety or an unexplainable feeling of impending doom
- Indigestion symptoms
- Feeling of tightness, pressure, or fullness in the chest
- Pain that radiates through the shoulder, arm, or jaw
- Chest pain
Heart Attack Diagnosis
When doctors or emergency room staff are made aware of symptoms
of heart attack, there are some standard things that they should
do to determine if a patient has had, is having or is about to
have a heart attack. This is very basic. It is not like looking
for a rare disease or condition. Heart attack diagnostic procedure
includes:
- Carefully reviewing the patient’s
medical history for risk factors including the use of certain
medications
- Conducting a thorough physical examination
- Electrocardiogram testing (ECG or EKG)
- Blood tests to check levels of the enzymes tropan and Creatine
phosphokinase (CPK)
Why Doctors Fail to Diagnose Heart Attack
Even with growing awareness of heart attacks in women and young
people, doctors still fail to consider the chance of heart attack
in patients that do not fit the typical heart attacks profile.
Of course, other errors can also lead to failure to diagnose
or delayed diagnosis of heart attack. Heart attack misdiagnosis
is often the result of:
- Failure consider the possibility of heart attack in women,
young people, or patients who appear healthy and physically
fit
- Incomplete or no review of a patient’s
medical history and the medications they are taking or have
taken
- Failure to recognize and respond to the symptoms of heart
attack
- Failure to administer the proper tests
- Misreading test results
- Overreliance on EKG results
- Mistaking symptoms for the symptoms of other health conditions,
such as heartburn, pneumonia, or gallstones
What You Need To Know:
Insurance companies' obligations are to their stockholders and
policy holders, not to the people injured by their insured's
negligence. Insurance companies' desire to maximize their own
profits provides them with every motivation to try to deny your
claim or pay you the very minimum amount that they can get away
with. The insurance companies also have enormous advantages:
they have immense wealth, armies of experienced adjusters and
lawyers and years of experience reducing and denying claims.
At the Law Office of Stephen A. Burroughs,
our only obligation is to you, our client. We will use our experience
and every resource available to protect your interests, and we
will work hard to help you receive the full value for your case.
We will advise you every step of the way to help you avoid any
mistakes that could cost you money. There is no charge for attorney's
fees until you recover money for your personal injuries, and
we will also help you resolve your property damage claims for
no fee whatsoever. For assistance, call today at 1-877-300-3773, contact
us or submit
an free online case evaluation.
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