Heart attacks remain one of the leading causes of death in the U.S. Much attention has been given to prevention of heart attacks through diet, exercise and smoking cessation. Despite these efforts, heart attacks still happen in abundance. More attention is needed on what to do when a heart attack happens.
The key to surviving heart attack (also called myocardial infarction or MI) is early recognition of symptoms. Most of you know the classic signs of MI by now: chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness, etc. I also recently blogged about how women who suffer a heart attack may have less pronounced symptoms than men: https://www.mishkindlaw.com/.
Another key to surviving MI is prompt resuscitation when a cardiac arrest occurs. I was reminded of this recently upon reading this story about the importance of early intervention when someone suffers a cardiac arrest: http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2012/05/25/153635624/dispatchers-cpr-coaching-saves-lives-when-every-minute-counts. According to an expert cited in this article, for “
Delayed diagnosis of heart attacks happens in many ways. Some examples include: failure to properly triage patients in an ER or doctor’s waiting room, failure to rescue in a hospital setting through prompt and proper resuscitation, failure to properly monitor at-risk patients, failure to recognize potential symptoms of MI, and failure to promptly treat patients with serious blockages of the arteries of the heart. When a trained medical professional fails in one of these ways to protect a patient to whom they owe a duty of care, a claim for medical malpractice may exist under Ohio law.
