According to a recent study on heart attacks and wrong diagnoses, chest pain severity and duration are not indicators of a heart attack. However, the study notes that just because a person is experiencing severe or long-lasting chest pain does not meant that they are not experiencing a heart attack.
Researchers analyzed the chest pain severity and duration of 3,300 patients arriving at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and followed them for 30 days after their arrival. In their study, the researchers found that patients who experienced the worst or longest-lasting chest pain were no more likely to be experiencing a heart attack or to experience a heart attack in the next 30 days than patients with less severe or less-lasting chest pain.
Also, research shows that about 30 percent of medical malpractice payments are made to patients who have had a wrongly diagnosed heart attack. In addition, the study says that between 2 to 5 percent of patients experiencing heart attacks are wrongly discharged from hospitals. The study can be found in the Annals of Emergency Medicine.
Contact the Chicago wrong diagnosis/failure to diagnose lawyers of Friedman & Bonebrake, P.C. at 312-466-8200 today, if you or someone you love has been the victim of a wrong diagnosis.