Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack Lawyers
Orlando, Florida
The failure to diagnose a heart attack can be an extremely serious problem, because the symptoms of a heart attack are very similar to lots of other health conditions which aren't life threatening. If your doctor fails to realize that you or a loved one is actually suffering a heart attack, precious time is lost and the consequences to your health can be much worse. According to the American Heart Association, over 7 million people suffered some sort of heart attack, or myocardial infarction (MI), in 2003, and that number continues to grow. One in three adults has some form of Cardiovascular Disease (CVD), so it is extremely important for you to get a proper diagnosis immediately.
One reason your heart attack may not have been properly diagnosed is because your symptoms may have been confused with other things. Some of the most frequently made errors in diagnosis include:
- Missing a heart attack diagnosis in younger patients (because doctors don't expect young people to have heart attacks)
- The fact that heart attacks occur more frequently in men, so your doctor may fail to diagnose it in your case if you are a woman, and
- Misreading an electrocardiogram (ECG), which measures your heart activity. (Due to improperly reading ECGs, up to 23% of heart attacks weren't diagnosed correctly according to one recent study.)
Another reason your doctor may have failed to diagnose your heart attack is that some symptoms of heart attack can be very ambiguous. Your doctor may not have evaluated the following risk factors accurately:
- Your age
- Your previous heart condition(s)
- Your drug interactions, if any (including your hormone replacement therapy and/or your use of oral contraceptives)
- Your medical history,
- Your lifestyle such as alcohol use, drug use, and amount of physical activity and exercise
- Whether you smoke or not
- Whether you are experiencing menopause
Sometimes it may appear that you have no heart attack symptoms.
If your doctor sees you with heart attack symptoms (such as pressure, fullness, or squeezing pain in the center of your chest; escalating occurrences of chest pain; shortness of breath; sweating; nausea; and/or vomiting), but fails to investigate your possible risk factors for heart attack, or if your physician fails to perform tests to rule out a heart attack, these could be signs of medical malpractice.
If you or a loved one has suffered because your physician failed to diagnose a heart attack, contact Orlando, Florida medical malpractice attorneys at Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter today. We will evaluate your failure to diagnose a heart attack claim for free and represent you on a contingent fee basis, which means you don't have to pay any attorneys' fees until you recover on your claim.
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