Failure to Diagnose Heart Attacks

    /24-7PressRelease/ - CAMDEN, NJ, February 01, 2008 - When patients are sent home undiagnosed after a heart attack, they do not receive the treatment they need to avoid permanent injury, and are at risk for another heart attack, and may die. Heart attacks are a very common medical emergency, but are often overlooked or misdiagnosed in emergency rooms and during regular doctor visits. When a heart attack is quickly detected and treated, further damage can be avoided. Most patients not only survive, but recover well and can live a normal life. When an impending heart attack is caught before it occurs, it can often be prevented, which is even better.

Predicting heart attacks
Doctors and emergency room staff can often anticipate an imminent heart attack by:
· Carefully reviewing patient history
· Conducting a thorough physical exam
· Electrocardiogram testing (ECG or EKG)
· Blood tests

Detecting heart attacks
When a heart attack is not anticipated and prevented, it can still be treated successfully if quickly recognized. Prompt treatment can save a heart attack patient's life and/or prevent permanent injury. In order to properly diagnose a heart attack, health care professionals must recognize and respond to the symptoms. These symptoms include:
· Chest pain
· Pain radiating through the shoulder, arm, or jaw
· Indigestion symptoms
· Nausea
· Dizziness
· Shortness of breath
· Weakness

If a patient displays these or other heart attack symptoms an ECG or EKG and blood tests should be performed immediately. Elevated levels of the enzyme tropan, in the blood, can indicate a heart attack. Another enzyme, called Creatine phosphokinase (CPK), can indicate tissue or muscle death. If these tests indicate the likelihood of a heart attack, more extensive tests should follow.

Common misdiagnosis
Because heart attack symptoms are similar to symptoms of other medical problems heart attacks are often misdiagnosed as:
· Heartburn
· Acid reflux
· Anxiety attack
· Musculoskeletal pain
· Bronchitis
· Pneumonia
· Esophagitis
· Angina
· Gallstones

Common mistakes that led to undiagnosed heart attacks
Besides simply mistaking heart attack symptoms for those of other health problems, doctors and emergency room staff sometimes don't consider the possibility of a heart attack in people who seem unlikely victims. Women are at a much greater risk than is commonly believed, and young people can suffer heart attacks. Certain medications and other underlying health problems can cause heart attacks in people who don't obviously fit the profile for a heart attack candidate. Common factors leading to heart attack misdiagnosis include:
· Failure to consider heart attacks in women
· Failure to consider heart attacks in younger people
· Failure to review a patients medical history, including suspect medications
· Failure to recognize symptoms
· Failure to administer the necessary tests
· Misreading EKG results
· Over reliance on EKG results

New Jersey medical malpractice lawyer Michael L. Weiss, Esq. has tried several failure to diagnose heart attack lawsuits to a jury and has successfully recovered millions of dollars on behalf of medical malpractice victims and their families. If you or a loved one has been harmed by a physician's failure to diagnose heart attack, please contact Weiss & Paarz, P.C., today.

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