Every year hundreds of thousands of Americans suffer from a heart attack—one every 34 seconds, according to the American Heart Association. While modern medicine has raised the survival rate of a heart attack considerably, many of the further injuries and complications can be prevented with early diagnosis.
If you suffered a heart attack and the damage may have been prevented or reduced, but was not the result of your doctor's failure to diagnose the signs of the attack, you may have a medical malpractice case to file.
Failure to Diagnose a Heart Attack
Many Americans are rushed to the emergency room each day complaining of chest pains, shortness of breath and numbness in their upper body. These are common signs that they are suffering or about to suffer a heart attack and should not be ignored. Unfortunately, many doctors and hospital staff are overworked and burdened with other patients, causing them to improperly discharge these patients.
When there is a failure to diagnose a heart attack, the patient often returns within hours, even minutes, suffering from much worse symptoms. When a heart attack is not detected and handled early, it can cause permanent damage or can be fatal. These are injuries and consequences you wouldn't have experienced had there not been a failure to diagnose your condition.
Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim for Failure to Diagnose
In instances of failure to diagnose a condition, a medical malpractice case may be filed to recover the unnecessary damages you suffered from the doctor's negligence. If the doctor had properly diagnosed and began treatment for your heart attack, the damage may have been limited or a life may have been saved. A medical malpractice case allows for injured patients or families who have lost a loved one to recover compensation to deal with the medical bills and losses.
You will need to provide evidence that you sought medical treatment for your condition and that the doctor failed to properly diagnose your condition until further, unnecessary damage was suffered. Early detection of a heart attack can dramatically decrease the damage and recovery time a patient experiences. If your doctor was negligent and a failure to diagnose caused additional injury and recovery time and expenses, you are entitled to file a medical malpractice claim.
Copyright (c) 2011 Benjamin Glass
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