Hospital Ignored Warning Signs Of A Heart Attack - What Can I Do?

**ObiWayneKenobi** · 05-24-2008, 04:08 AM

My question involves medical malpractice in the state of: FLORIDA

On May 3rd my grandfather had numbness and tingling in the left side of his body, from his ear down through his arm, so I took him to the Emergency Room of our local hospital. Less than an hour later the ER said he had a middle ear infection and released him with a prescription for some medication. Not twenty minutes after that, he suffered a massive heart attack at the supermarket and nearly died (he technically stopped breathing for a few minutes). He was in the hospital (another one, obviously) for 10 days, and they found out that he had two arteries in his heart clogged up - one was 100% clogged up and was given a stint (sp?) to be opened, the other is 70% clogged and will require surgery soon. He's doing better now, but I'm wondering if I can sue the original hospital since they took absolutely NO steps to ensure he didn't have a heart attack or a stroke before sending him on his way, despite having all the classic symptoms of both, and despite his age (he is 77). I don't think he has any permanent injury, apart from the fact he had a heart attack (which, for some reason, doesn't seem to count), although he fell and hit his head pretty hard. There has to be *some* law that prevents a hospital from ignoring the warning signs for something serious, right?? I mean, arteries don't go from being not clogged at all to fully clogged - a blood test or EKG or whatever should have revealed it, and they could have given him proper medical care immediately. They performed none of this (he wasn't in the ER long enough for them to take blood and get the results. He was in the ER for less than 1 hour). As it was, he did stop breathing for a couple of minutes and needed paramedics to perform CPR, which broke some of his ribs.

I've tried contacting about 4 lawyers so far, and I've gotten some standard, bogus response about it being "tough" from all of them without a permanent injury (one even had the gall to say I didn't have enough for a legal case!), despite the fact we have obtained the ER's medical records for him and we KNOW FOR A FACT that they knew he had tingling/numbness in his left arm, but didn't take any blood or do any kind of tests to make sure it wasn't a heart attack or a stroke. I've even tried to contact the local news, because quite frankly if this isn't a law, then it should be; a hospital, ER or not, should not be able to ignore common sense warning signs and get away with it.

Is there anything I can do? I'm getting extremely frustrated with the lack of action on the part of everyone I've talked to, but all my friends and family members (and THEIR friends and family members) said immediately "You have a lawsuit" once I explained to them what the situation was.

**Vincent B** · 05-24-2008, 05:58 AM

Obi, fortunately you don't have a case because that would require the death or permanent harm of your relative. There was no permament injury because the coronary angioplasty took place right away , only at a different hospital. The heart attack was happening anyway you look at it. So the end result is that he is okay. You do have a major issue of complaint against the first hospital for poor care etc. that you should file with the CEO and american hospital assoc. But unless you can prove harm, you will not win a lawsuit, you will just continue to be frustrated.

**ObiWayneKenobi** · 05-24-2008, 06:16 AM

You've got to be kidding me - there's no law that prevents you from going to a hospital with symptoms of something, and them not doing anything about it or even taking the proper steps to make sure that you are treated for the symptoms?? Or is it just that I can't sue for malpractice specifically? I don't know what else it would fall under, all I know is that the first hospital didn't do a damn thing to diagnose his heart attack, but sent him on his way.

What sort of lawyer should I be looking for, then? Surely they can't be able to get away with ignoring what everyone knows to be the warning signs of something. It would be like me having a broken arm and them not doing anything for it but saying that something different is wrong!

**Betty3** · 05-24-2008, 02:10 PM

I don't know what type of attorney you should talk to except a medical malpractice attorney. It seems the 4 you did talk to thought it would be a "tough" case to win.