When you’re experiencing symptoms like chest pain or shortness of breath, you deserve immediate, accurate medical care. Medical professionals are trained to properly catch the warning signs of a heart attack. But when you deal with a failure to diagnose a heart attack in Michigan ERs, you can be sent home with a false diagnosis or unhelpful remedies that leave you soon suffering from the severe damage a heart attack can cause.
If you or a loved one has been in this frightening situation, you should hire a diagnosis errors attorney right away. Your attorney can help you take legal action after critical diagnostic errors lead to permanent heart damage, life-threatening health complications, and crippling medical bills.
If You’ve Suffered Due to Your Healthcare, Hire a Diagnosis Errors Attorney
Emergency rooms are fast-paced, high-pressure environments that have 155.4 million visits a year in the United States. Physicians must make quick decisions, but this does not excuse them from preventable medical errors. A Michigan diagnosis errors attorney can help you file a claim against your healthcare provider, bringing you justice for the damage you suffered as a result of a negligent diagnosis.
In a medical malpractice case, your attorney must help you establish that the doctor or medical system failed to meet the standard of care they owed to you as your healthcare provider. Your attorney can analyze evidence such as medical charts, your physician’s notes, medical test results, and the testimony of other medical professionals to prove your claim. For a successful case, you must prove:
- You were the healthcare provider’s patient and were owed a certain standard of care.
- The defendant’s actions breached the standard of care
- The breach of care directly caused your heart attack to occur
- You suffered measurable damages from your heart attack
Understanding a Heart Attack Diagnosis
Heart attacks are one of the most common yet life-threatening medical issues you can experience. Approximately one in every three deaths is caused by a heart attack. On a fundamental level, these attacks happen when heart tissue goes without oxygen and begins to die due to blockages in blood flow to the heart. While they can be unexpected, there are also many warning signs that can signal the need for immediate diagnosis and treatment.
Heart attack symptoms are not always obvious and can vary from person to person. This makes careful evaluation critical when a patient in the ER has common warning signs like:
- Chest pain or pressure
- Shortness of breath
- Lightheadedness or dizziness
- Pain radiating down the arm, neck, back, or jaw
- Nausea or vomiting
- Fatigue
Emergency room staff are trained to recognize and respond to these signs. If you experience these symptoms or suspect a heart attack, you should be met with prompt testing to determine if a heart attack has occurred. These tests often include blood work and EKGs to analyze your heart health.
How Misdiagnoses Happen in Diagnosis Error Cases
Despite clear protocols and early warning signs, some heart attacks go undiagnosed, often leading to severe cardiac events that leave you with irreversible heart damage, chronic heart failure, increased risk of future cardiac events, and even wrongful death. Heart tissue becomes irreversibly damaged within 30 minutes of having its oxygen supply blocked.
Though emergency rooms from Lansing to Ann Arbor have clear protocols for heart attack detection and diagnosis, many heart attacks go overlooked. Some common causes of a failure to diagnose a case include:
- Attributing symptoms to other, less serious conditions
- Failure to order diagnostic tests
- Improperly interpreting test results
- Overcrowded ERs and long wait times
Not all instances of failing to diagnose a heart attack are due to medical malpractice. For example, if the doctor followed proper protocol, but you presented with atypical symptoms, or if the lab testing didn’t show evidence of a heart attack, it may not be legally actionable. Speaking with a Michigan diagnosis errors attorney can help you understand the laws surrounding your diagnosis errors.
FAQs About Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack in Michigan ERs
Can You File a Claim Against a Hospital for Failure to Diagnose?
Yes. You may be able to file a claim against the hospital if failure to diagnose your issue was caused by the hospital’s employees failing to uphold the standard of care. Hospitals can be held liable for the actions of their employees, as well as systemic issues like enforcing inadequate protocols or poor staffing that can also lead to diagnosis error cases.
What Is the Hardest Element to Prove in a Medical Malpractice Claim?
Causation is generally the most difficult element of a medical malpractice claim to prove. You must establish that your heart attack occurred directly because of your healthcare provider’s failure to diagnose. In other words, you must prove that you would not have suffered the heart attack or that your heart attack would not have been as severe if the provider had been able to properly diagnose and treat it.
What Are Common Reasons Heart Attacks Aren’t Diagnosed?
Heart attacks are often missed due to procedural errors or because early warning signs aren’t detected through traditional heart attack protocols. For example, rushed evaluations, incorrectly interpreting EKG and bloodwork testing, or mistaking symptoms for signs of another condition are all common reasons for diagnosis errors.
A Michigan diagnosis error attorney can review medical records and speak with cardiology specialists to determine the cause of a missed diagnosis.
What Are the Diagnosis Error Penalties?
Misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose doesn’t automatically result in specific diagnosis error penalties. However, by filing a claim, your healthcare provider can be required to pay for the damages you have suffered. At Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC, we can help pursue fair outcomes that help support your recovery after a heart attack.
Learn How Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC Can Help You Move Forward After a Missed Diagnosis
If you went to the emergency room with heart attack symptoms but were sent home without proper care, Goethel Engelhardt, PLLC can help. Our attorneys have over 40 years of experience, giving us a deep insight into Michigan’s medical malpractice laws and the litigation process. We can build a strong claim that reflects your unique experience, helping you make a full recovery. Contact us to schedule a consultation about your diagnosis error case.
