Emergency Room Delay

According to the American Heart Association, 1.5 million Americans have a heart attack (officially known as a myocardial infarction or MI) each year, and about 20% of them die before reaching a hospital. If proper medical treatment is administered within 60 minutes of the event, the odds for surviving improve dramatically and the likelihood of serious damage to heart tissue decreases. Once presentation is made to an Emergency Room, it is incumbent for the ER doctors and medical staff to act quickly to diagnosis the MI and timely adminster definitive treatment to allow blood flow to return to the heart. Delay in diagnosis and/or providing definitive care will lead to the death of heart muscle causing congestive heart failure. The extent of damage will depend on how much and how long oxygen deprivation occurs. Ultimately, this delay can cause death or the need for a heart transplant.

Our firm has successfully prosecuted negligent doctors and hospitals for not timely attending to patients with an evolving myocardial infarction. (Go to our Home page and see our "verdicts" or "in the news" pages). Diagnosis and treatment of a myocardial infarction is a common event that every properly trained doctor that works in an ER in the United States should be competent in handling. All to often emergency room personnel "drop the ball" causing catastrophic damage to their patients. Many times our attorneys can help recovery money damage for the victims and their families of these tragic and negligent acts.

In an effort to increase the number of heart attack patients who are treated during this "golden hour," the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute has initiated the National Heart Attack Alert Program, which is focusing on educating the public about symptoms and the need for rapid medical intervention, improving the response times and expertise of Emergency Medical System (EMS) personnel, and streamlining the procedures that hospitals use to evaluate and admit people who may have suffered a myocardial infarction. The public needs to know to seek medical treatment rapidly upon the onset of an evolving MI, but the emergency room staff as trained professionals should be ready to treat and diagnos the MI the minute the patient hits the ER doors!

The anatomy of a heart attack occurs over many years as fatty plaques build up on the inner walls of coronary arteries, causing these vessels to harden and narrow and reducing the flow of blood to the heart muscle. Most myocardial infarctions occur when a thrombus (clot) forms in one of these arteries and completely blocks the blood supply to part of the heart. If deprived of oxygen and nutrients long enough, this portion of the muscle will die; surrounding tissue may also be damaged. During the attack, the heart contracts weakly instead of pumping blood forcefully to the brain and other vital organs. Its electrical activity may also become erratic, increasing the likelihood that a sudden and fatal arrhythmia could occur.

A myocardial infarction is typically accompanied by sensations of crushing pressure or fullness, or by searing in the chest that may be mistaken for severe heartburn. The pain may radiate to the shoulders or arms (typically on the left, although either or both sides may be affected), as well as to the neck, jaw, or back. Dizziness, nausea, shortness of breath, and faintness are also common, and the victim may feel clammy to the touch. The symptoms can occur in any combination and can range from mild to severe or be completely absent.

If you or a loved one presented to an Emergency Room anywhere in the United States and there was a delay in treatment, call us for a free consultation about you case.

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