Medical Malpractice Malpractice

[mustang66]

My husband goes every year for a stress test. He went in September and was told by the NP that everything looked good. We had an appointment with his cardio in 2 wks to go over the results. His office cancelled the appointment and rescheduled for following 2 wks. Again they cancelled for 2 more weeks, and again cancelled that one. They gave me an appointment for Dec 20th. I called the office and asked for the NP to find out if the test was read and if she could let me know the results of my husband's test. She said that he had an 'incident' and that the bottom of his heart is dead with no blood flow. I called the doctors office the next day and insisted on an earlier appointment - after a lot of persuasion I got an appointment for the following week. During the appointment the doctor said that the stress test showed that my husband had a moderate heart attack and that he had to go in the next day for an angiogram and angioplasty a stent. You can imagine how shock we both were. He gave him 2 sample bottles of blood thinners and said take 2 of these now and one in the morning. The test was done - and the surgeon said that there is no sign of any heart attack, no clogged arteries = in fact everything looks good.
I am very upset that my doctor dropped the ball on this one. He never called me when or IF he got these results in September - and saw us mid November. If this was a heart attack - it was his responsibility to call me and tell me to get in asap. Everyone keeps telling me that this is malpractice.... Is there any grounds for a case? Also, during my appointment with my cardio I asked if he had my blood test results for cholesterol and he said that he can't find it and will have to ask the lab to fax it over ---- we were there over an hour and still he was unable to tell us what the test results were. This is a big practice, if he was out of the office I am sure the other doctors cover for one another. I just think that someone should have called me and said something. If this was a heart attack and I had to wait until December 20 that would have been 3 months, if something would have happened in the interim no one would have known why. The doctor was irresponsible and it was his responsibility to read the report and call me if he saw a problem. I just don't think he read the report until he saw me,,,but the doctor in his office read the report, someone should have called us.

 

[army judge]

Nothing DID happen, and the physician or the NP,had no duty to contact you, if there was a duty; it was to contact your husband.

If there is a case, which there isn't, the case isn't yours; it'd be your husband's.

Bottom line, there were no damages, no damages no medical malpractice.

You are always FREE to speak with a couple or three medical malpractice attorneys in your county.

 

[cbg]

Under HIPAA privacy laws, the doctor COULD NOT legally call you, unless your husband had previously provided written authorization for him to do so. That is information can generally only be shared with the patient directly.

 

[Proserpina]

My husband goes every year for a stress test. He went in September and was told by the NP that everything looked good. We had an appointment with his cardio in 2 wks to go over the results. His office cancelled the appointment and rescheduled for following 2 wks. Again they cancelled for 2 more weeks, and again cancelled that one. They gave me an appointment for Dec 20th. I called the office and asked for the NP to find out if the test was read and if she could let me know the results of my husband's test. She said that he had an 'incident' and that the bottom of his heart is dead with no blood flow. I called the doctors office the next day and insisted on an earlier appointment - after a lot of persuasion I got an appointment for the following week. During the appointment the doctor said that the stress test showed that my husband had a moderate heart attack and that he had to go in the next day for an angiogram and angioplasty a stent. You can imagine how shock we both were. He gave him 2 sample bottles of blood thinners and said take 2 of these now and one in the morning. The test was done - and the surgeon said that there is no sign of any heart attack, no clogged arteries = in fact everything looks good.
I am very upset that my doctor dropped the ball on this one. He never called me when or IF he got these results in September - and saw us mid November. If this was a heart attack - it was his responsibility to call me and tell me to get in asap. Everyone keeps telling me that this is malpractice.... Is there any grounds for a case? Also, during my appointment with my cardio I asked if he had my blood test results for cholesterol and he said that he can't find it and will have to ask the lab to fax it over ---- we were there over an hour and still he was unable to tell us what the test results were. This is a big practice, if he was out of the office I am sure the other doctors cover for one another. I just think that someone should have called me and said something. If this was a heart attack and I had to wait until December 20 that would have been 3 months, if something would have happened in the interim no one would have known why. The doctor was irresponsible and it was his responsibility to read the report and call me if he saw a problem. I just don't think he read the report until he saw me,,,but the doctor in his office read the report, someone should have called us.

In all honesty, the delay in treatment may not have made a difference either way.

What happens is, the heart suffers some sort of physical injury and over the next few days there is a much greater chance of a negative outcome than 3 months later. But the heart does start to heal (seeing the difference between a heart 3 days post-event and 3 months post-event is really something!). In the first 8 or so weeks, the heart will heal about as much as it's going to. You'll be told if there is damage severe enough to warrant more serious surgeries (such as LVAD - a sort of mechanical device which helps the left side of the heart pump more effectively - or transplant), and/or if you've actually healed well enough to go back to yearly monitoring.

I do strongly recommend you and your husband have a look here. http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/Condi...ks/About-Heart-Attacks_UCM_002038_Article.jsp It's a great tool in understanding what a heart attack actually is, what happens and what to expect.

It is true that the most risk occurs immediately after the attack itself; those minutes and hours can make a massive difference to the prognosis. Once you get past a certain point though, the time between the injury and the start of treatment becomes less and less of a prognostic indicator - if there's going to be permanent damage or congestive heart failure, it will have already started to happen. In other words, if you live through it initially, you stand a much lower chance of sudden death as a result.

You'll also be told where in the heart the injury happened and how it makes a difference. For example, a minor block in the right side of your heart is generally much better than a blockage in the left side.

You know how people sometimes refer to "The Widowmaker" when they're talking about heart attacks? That's referring to your main left side coronary artery and these types are much more likely to result in sudden death.

I'm very glad that your husband survived the initial injury

(I'm not a physician by the way - I'm just painfully familiar with cardiology; I became a widow after my (very young) then-husband had two major heart attacks and passed from congestive heart failure)

Now you're both aware of what's going on, you can start to make the lifestyle changes which can improve his health and survival.

Good luck!

 

[Betty3]

I don't see a case of malpractice either but you/your husband are free to run it by a medical malpractice attorney or two.