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Failure to Diagnose Heart Attacks

A myocardial infarction means that part of the heart has died. This will usually happen when the blood flow to the heart, from the coronary arteries are clogged. The medical term for this is atherosclerosis or ateriosclerosis. It's a buildup of plaque that lines and clogs the blood vessels that supply blood to the heart. When the blood can no longer get through, the supply gets choked off, literally killing off part of the heart.

Often when there is buildup of plaque, it will occur in multiple arteries at the same time. That is why you may have heard of the term triple bypass, double bypass or even quadruple bypass surgery.  What happens in those instances is that when a doctor recognizes that your coronary arteries are closing off, you will be sent to a cardiovascular surgeon to literally bypass the affected arteries. You must have continual blood flow to your heart. A bypass accomplishes that by taking blood vessels from other parts of your body, and connecting them to the diseased blood vessels, before it has a chance to kill of part of your heart.

A failure to diagnose the clinical signs and symptoms of a heart attack could include the failure to properly interpret an EKG or even a stress test. When that happens, you could suffer a massive heart attack. Unfortunately, if the symptoms of heart disease had been recognized you may have had an elective heart bypass surgery and avoided the heart attack all together.

Heart disease and heart attacks are deadly. Take steps to get regular check-ups with your internist and your cardiologist. 

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Blog for Failure to Diagnose Heart Attacks

• Medical Malpractice: Studying False Diagnoses

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Library for Failure to Diagnose Heart Attacks:

• How Does a Hospital Fail To Diagnose a Heart Attack? [PDF]   
  Today's topic is failure to diagnose heart attacks. What are they and why are they important? The failure to recognize a heart attack has significant, dramatic implications for the patient. If a heart attack occurs, it can kill off a good portion of your heart. And if it is not recognized either immediately before it happens or at the time it's happening, the result could be devastating.
  
  Let me tell you about a case I recently handled involving a young man and a failure to diagnose a heart attack. The patient developed chest pain and went to his local emergency room. While in the emergency room they hooked him up to a cardiac monitor, and they drew his blood and did all sorts of tests.

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