Cardiac Malpractice Lawyer in Pennsylvania

Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack, Aortic Dissection, and Life-Threatening Cardiac Emergencies

 

Cardiac malpractice cases often involve conditions that are detectable, diagnosable, and treatable when healthcare providers respond appropriately. Heart attacks, evolving myocardial infarction, unstable angina, elevated troponin levels, abnormal EKG findings, aortic aneurysm, and aortic dissection are not conditions that can safely be ignored, minimized, or treated as routine complaints.

When a patient presents with chest pain, shortness of breath, back pain, arm pain, jaw pain, sweating, nausea, weakness, dizziness, fainting, abnormal vital signs, elevated cardiac enzymes, or other warning signs, doctors and hospitals must take those symptoms seriously. The basic tools for evaluating cardiac emergencies — EKGs, serial troponins, imaging, cardiac monitoring, CT angiography, cardiology consultation, and hospital admission when appropriate — exist for a reason.

TR DeAngelo Law represents patients and families in cardiac malpractice cases involving failure to diagnose and treat heart attacks, failure to recognize elevated troponin and risk of myocardial infarction, failure to order routine cardiac testing, delayed diagnosis of aortic dissection, and hospital negligence. As both a medical malpractice attorney and registered nurse, Terry DeAngelo evaluates these cases with an understanding of how cardiac symptoms, diagnostic testing, lab trends, imaging, and hospital communication should work in real clinical practice.

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What Is Cardiac Malpractice?

 

Cardiac malpractice occurs when a healthcare provider fails to recognize, diagnose, treat, monitor, or timely respond to a heart-related emergency or serious cardiovascular condition.

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These cases often involve missed opportunities. A patient reports concerning symptoms, but no EKG is ordered. A troponin level is elevated, but the significance is not recognized. Chest pain is attributed to anxiety, reflux, muscle strain, or a minor condition without ruling out a heart attack. Severe chest or back pain is treated casually despite the risk of aortic dissection. A patient is discharged when cardiac monitoring, additional testing, or hospital admission was required.

 

Cardiac malpractice may involve:

• Failure to order an EKG;

• Failure to order serial troponins;

• Failure to recognize elevated troponin levels;

• Failure to diagnose myocardial infarction;

• Failure to recognize unstable angina;

• Failure to consult cardiology;

• Failure to admit or monitor a high-risk patient;

• Failure to order CT angiography when aortic dissection is a concern;

• Failure to recognize aortic aneurysm or dissection;

• Delay in cardiac catheterization;

• Delay in surgery or transfer to a higher level of care;

• Failure to communicate abnormal results;

• Discharging a patient despite unresolved cardiac warning signs.

 

The issue is not whether every patient with chest pain is having a heart attack. The issue is whether the healthcare team took reasonable steps to rule out life-threatening conditions before sending the patient home or delaying treatment.

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Failure to Diagnose and Treat Heart Attack

 

A heart attack can cause permanent heart damage or death if it is not recognized and treated in time. Many heart attack malpractice cases involve failures in basic evaluation.

 

Doctors and hospitals may be negligent when they fail to:

• Take chest pain or shortness of breath seriously;

• Order an immediate EKG;

• Repeat an EKG when symptoms continue or change;

• Order troponin testing;

• Repeat troponin testing over time;

• Recognize an elevated or rising troponin;

• Appreciate the risk of myocardial infarction;

• Place the patient on cardiac monitoring;

• Consult cardiology;

• Admit the patient for observation;

• Perform timely cardiac catheterization;

• Transfer the patient to a hospital capable of advanced cardiac care.

 

Heart attack diagnosis is not guesswork. When a patient has symptoms concerning for cardiac ischemia, the medical team must use the available tools to determine whether the patient is experiencing a myocardial infarction or is at risk of one.

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Elevated Troponin and Risk of Myocardial Infarction

 

Troponin is a cardiac marker that can indicate injury to the heart muscle. An elevated troponin is not something that should be brushed aside without explanation. In the right clinical setting, an elevated or rising troponin may be a warning sign of myocardial infarction, unstable cardiac disease, or other serious cardiac injury.

 

A malpractice case may arise when providers:

• Fail to order troponin testing in a patient with cardiac symptoms;

• Fail to repeat troponin testing;

• Misinterpret an elevated troponin;

• Fail to recognize a rising troponin trend;

• Attribute troponin elevation to a non-cardiac cause without adequate investigation;

• Fail to involve cardiology;

• Fail to admit, monitor, or treat the patient;

• Discharge the patient despite abnormal cardiac markers.

 

The significance of troponin depends on the full clinical picture. But that is exactly the point: elevated troponin must be evaluated in context, not ignored.

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Failure to Order Routine Cardiac Testing

 

Many cardiac malpractice cases are not about rare medicine. They are about basic tests that should have been ordered but were not.

 

In patients with concerning symptoms, routine cardiac evaluation may include:

• EKG;

• Repeat EKG;

• Troponin testing;

• Serial troponin testing;

• Chest imaging;

• Echocardiogram;

• Cardiac monitoring;

• Stress testing, when appropriate;

• Cardiac catheterization, when indicated;

• CT angiography when aortic dissection is suspected.

 

When providers fail to order routine tests, they can miss conditions that are otherwise detectable and treatable. A patient should not suffer a fatal or disabling cardiac event because basic cardiac workup was delayed, incomplete, or ignored.

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Failure to Diagnose Aortic Dissection

 

Aortic dissection is a life-threatening emergency. It occurs when a tear develops in the inner layer of the aorta, allowing blood to track within the wall of the vessel. If not recognized and treated quickly, aortic dissection can lead to rupture, stroke, organ failure, cardiac tamponade, shock, and death.

 

Aortic dissection can be difficult to diagnose because symptoms may overlap with other conditions. But that does not excuse a failure to consider it when the warning signs are present.

 

Concerning features may include:

• Sudden severe chest pain;

• Severe back pain;

• Tearing or ripping pain;

• Pain radiating to the neck, jaw, abdomen, or back;

• Fainting or near-fainting;

• Neurologic symptoms;

• Pulse or blood pressure differences;

• Known aortic aneurysm;

• Connective tissue disorder;

• History of aortic valve disease;

• Unexplained shock or collapse.

 

When aortic dissection is reasonably suspected, providers must act quickly. That may require CT angiography, urgent surgical consultation, blood pressure control, transfer to an appropriate facility, and emergency treatment.

Aortic dissection is dangerous, but it is also a condition that modern medicine is designed to detect and treat. The tragedy occurs when the possibility is never seriously considered until it is too late.

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Detectable, Diagnosable, and Treatable

 

The central theme in many cardiac malpractice cases is simple: the condition was detectable, diagnosable, and treatable.

Heart attacks can often be detected with symptoms, EKGs, troponins, monitoring, and appropriate cardiac workup. Aortic dissections can often be diagnosed with careful assessment and the right imaging. Heart failure can often be recognized through symptoms, physical examination, imaging, oxygen levels, labs, and response to treatment.

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The question is whether the healthcare providers used the tools available to them.

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If they failed to order the test, failed to read the result, failed to communicate the finding, failed to appreciate the risk, or failed to treat the condition in time, the patient may have a valid medical malpractice claim.

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Warning Signs of Possible Cardiac Malpractice

 

A cardiac malpractice case may need investigation when:

• A patient went to the ER with chest pain and was sent home;

• No EKG was ordered despite cardiac symptoms;

• Troponin was elevated but not acted upon;

• Troponin was not repeated despite ongoing symptoms;

• Symptoms were dismissed as anxiety, reflux, muscle strain, or indigestion;

• A patient returned to the hospital worse after a recent discharge;

• Severe chest or back pain was not evaluated for aortic dissection;

• CT angiography was delayed or never ordered;

• Cardiology or surgery was not consulted in time;

• The patient suffered cardiac arrest after missed warning signs;

• The patient died from myocardial infarction, heart failure, aortic dissection, shock, or organ failure after a delayed diagnosis.

 

These facts do not automatically prove malpractice. But they are red flags that the medical records should be reviewed carefully.