Heart Attack - Miami Medical Malpractice Lawyer: Sean M. Cleary

Heart Attack Following Medical Negligence in Miami

For numerous years, heart disease has been the leading cause of death across the U.S. In Florida, heart disease is responsible for 3 out of 10 deaths. A heart attack is usually the result of a coronary artery being blocked by a blood clot. Regardless of age, gender, race or ethnicity, anyone can suffer a heart attack.

Over 1.2 million new or recurrent heart attacks occur every year throughout the country and more than 14,000 take place in Florida. Approximately 700,000 people die of heart disease in the U.S. annually, which represents 27% of all deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Heart Attack Cases We Handle & Investigate in Miami and Florida

Surprisingly, doctors and nurses who have been in practice for years often fail to recognize the signs and symptoms of a heart attack. Therefore, numerous people who go to the ER with clear symptoms of a heart attack are told they are fine and sent home or are misdiagnosed with indigestion, GERD, or muscle strain. According to research, as many as 4% of people who go to the emergency room with a heart attack are discharged without the treatment they desperately needed.

Although heart attack medical malpractice can occur in multiple ways, the most common types of medical malpractice cases for heart attack are brought for:

• Heart attack misdiagnosis
• Delayed heart attack diagnosis
• Mismanagement of heart attack treatment

When it comes to the reason for which medical professionals overlook heart attack, most of our clients went through the following situations:

• Doctors fail to diagnose heart attacks because they do not order the appropriate tests to determine whether the patient is having a heart attack.
• Nurses and doctors are overworked, often being in a rush, so they do not take a thorough look at the patient’s medical history.
• Medical professionals misread the test results.
• Although the heart attack is sudden and obvious, a primary care professional, family doctor or even a cardiologist may prescribe the wrong treatment for it. Inappropriate treatment includes not addressing significant heart attack risk factors, failing to prevent a heart attack when it was possible, prescribing the wrong type or dose of medication, as well as not recognizing heart abnormalities that could have been treated to prevent the heart attack.

A large number of medical professionals in the E.R. can make a negligent error and fail to diagnose a heart attack in a timely fashion. Studies revealed that lower-volume emergency rooms have a higher rate of heart attack misdiagnosis than those which treat a higher volume of patients, the reason being that the former has less experience with diagnosing heart attacks and therefore have fewer resources to assign a correct diagnosis.

However, medical professionals in settings other than the E.R. can also assign a wrong diagnosis. Some examples of health care providers who could be responsible for a heart attack misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis are:

• Emergency room physicians
• Triage nurses
• Consulting cardiologists
• Interns and medical students
• Consulting physicians
• Family doctors
• General practitioners
• Physician assistants
• Lab technicians

Signs & Symptoms of Heart Attack: Seek Medical Attention Immediately

A heart attack occurs when plaque, a substance made of fat and cholesterol, blocks one of the arteries that lead to the heart. It is crucial to know that a heart attack is a medical emergency and if you are experiencing some of the following symptoms, medical assistance must be sought as soon as possible:

• Shortness of breath
• Pressure or tightness in your chest or arms
• Nausea
• Cold sweat
• Indigestion
• Dizziness

What Can You Recover After a Heart Attack?

If you experienced a heart attack because of the negligence of medical professionals, we strongly encourage you to file a claim with our attorney, Sean M. Cleary, who specializes in medical malpractice cases. Our legal services are free of charge, as we work on a contingency fee, which means that you do not have to pay anything unless we succeed in recovering compensation for you.

The financial compensation we will obtain from the defendant will cover some or all of the following aspects:

• Repayment of past medical bills
• Payment for future medical costs
• Lost past and future wages
• Home care and monitoring
• Rehabilitation to recover from stroke
• Physical and emotional pain and suffering

In the regrettable case of wrongful death, we can also recover compensation on behalf of the victim, which will cover:

• Lost companionship
• Funeral expenses
• Medical costs which were incurred before the death of the victim