Was my father a victim of medical malpractice due to a lack of treatment for a blocked artery? Should he consult attorney?
This is in NYS. My father was having severe chest pain, dizziness, and nausea with no previous heart conditions. He went to ER and received scans that revealed a 25% blockage in his LAD. As he was not currently having a heart attack he was told to go home and consult a cardiologist sometime over the next week. No urgency.
As he was in severe pain, he went to the cardiologist the next morning. The cardiologist was shocked that the ER sent him away, and that they didn’t give him an angioscopy. The cardiologist was extremely concerned and told my father to immediately go to the ER, who he would contact in advance, as he was on the verge of a serious heart attack.
Upon entering the ER he was rushed into the trauma room, received precautionary treatment for a heart attack and an immediate angioscopy. This revealed that he actually had a 90% blockage of his LAD. He immediately received a stent. Had he followed the first ER’s lack of urgency, and waited a few more days, he would likely be dead.
Is the first ER possibly guilty of malpractice? We are not really the type to seek out a lawsuit, and really we are just happy that my dad got a stent before something worse happened. Just sort of shocked that the first hospital was so dismissive.