Failure to hospitalize for observation
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Tragically resulting in death
Failure to hospitalize for observation a middle-aged man with numerous risk factors for myocardial infarction, in whom initial testing had raised a concern for unstable angina, resulting in death. Our client, a military veteran who was devoted to his family, but who was overweight, hypertensive and diabetic, had presented to his primary care provider with complaints of indigestion. She recognized that these might be symptoms of ischemia, and referred him to the cardiology department.
The cardiologist performed initial testing that was alarming, so scheduled him for outpatient cardiac catheterization, but gave him no warnings about limiting his activities in the meantime. Therefore, anxious that he had missed time from his truck driving job due to his medical appointments, he returned to work, but after making a long-haul delivery he was found unresponsive in his truck after a sudden ischemic attack and immediate attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.
With the help of experts in cardiology and internal medicine we were able to achieve a settlement that helped give his wife some closure and financial stability.
