A Montana woman and her four children have been awarded a $1.7 million verdict in a medical malpractice / wrongful death case arising from the death of her husband. The family alleged that a doctor failed to properly treat the woman’s husband for a known heart valve condition, commonly referred to as a leaky valve, and that the doctor should have referred the man to a heart specialist after he started having chest pain. Instead, the family alleged that the doctor misdiagnosed the chest pain as a torn muscle. The man died approximately one year later because he did not receive a replacement valve. A copy of an article regarding the case can be found here.
The failure to timely diagnose and treat a heart condition can be a catastrophic event. As an experienced Baltimore, Maryland medical malpractice lawyer, I have handled a number of medical malpractice cases involving failure to timely diagnose heart conditions. Some have involved malpractice in failing to timely diagnose heart attacks, and malpractice relating to the failure to timely diagnose congenital heart deformities. The key to cases like this is to obtain all of the medical records, and have the records reviewed by a competent cardiologist to determine whether the standard of care was met and, if not, whether any major injury resulted. To see some of the cases I have handled, click here.