Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States. Unfortunately, many of these deaths are the result of doctors failing to promptly diagnose and treat patients experiencing a heart attack.
A study in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine looked at 10,000 patients who went to their hospital Emergency Departments with chest pain or other heart attack symptoms. The study found that one of every 50 people who had suffered a heart attack was misdiagnosed and discharged from the hospital to home. Younger women experiencing heart attacks were especially likely to be misdiagnosed. Women younger than 55 were seven times more likely to be misdiagnosed than men of the same age. The consequences of these misdiagnoses were huge. Patients sent away from the hospital were twice as likely to die.
The reasons for misdiagnoses vary. Frequently, patients with heart attacks do not present with the “classic” symptoms. This is often the case with women experiencing a heart attack. The Indiana medical malpractice lawyers at Garau Germano, P.C. have represented numerous Indiana patients who have been injured as a result of the misdiagnosis or delayed treatment of a heart attack. If you or a loved one needs legal representation with such a case, please feel free to contact us.