Question

A 72 year old woman went into a walk-in clinic with complaints of coughing and shortness of breath. She was diagnosed with acute bronchitis and was given a prescription for antibiotics. She was told to return to the clinic if her symptoms did not respond to the antibiotics. The patient returned, the following week. She had similar complaints and was given a chest x-ray, which was normal. The patient was diagnosed with respiratory illness and was referred to a pulmonologist. She went home and suffered a massive heart attack the next day and died. In a law suit that followed, her daughter claimed that an EKG should have been ordered and that her mother should have been referred to a cardiac physician. The Dr. argued that the patient denied chest pain and angina symptoms during the evaluation and that the diagnosis that was made was reasonable.

Do you think the doctor should be liable in this case? Why or why not?

Answer 1

-The physician is liable. In any cases of abdominal whether epigastric or blunt abdominal, chest pain which is radiating to the arm or back, cardiac conditions should be ruled out.

-An EKG should be performed in any of the cases always. There is no exception.

-The physician is very much responsible and liable as he missed his duty to follow the protocol.

-Even though the patient denied angina symptoms, there are cases where angina symptoms do not exist in myocardial infarction cases. If EKG done, it might indicate cardiac ischemia.

-The appropriate thing to follow at that time could be to instantaneously have the woman directed to the cardiac catheterization workroom in instruction to assess his cardiac vessels by the usage of cardiac imaging.

-Had this be there and done, this patient's coronary artery obstructions would have been directly detected.

-She then would have undertaken a cardiac stenting besides if that stood not likely, she would have experienced an elective coronary artery bypass procedure, recognized therapeutically as a CABG, to expose up complete blocked coronary vessels.