Legal news reports that a jury has just awarded a woman $4M in a medical malpractice lawsuit. The woman filed the wrongful death case following her husband's death after a doctor allegedly mistook symptoms of a heart attack for a stomach illness. The jury determined that the emergency room physician breached his duty of care to the decedent.
If you believe that you or a loved one has suffered an injury as the result of negligent medical care, consulting with a knowledgeable Los Angeles medical malpractice lawyer is crucial to begin an investigation into all of the factors surrounding your matter.
According to the lawsuit, the 40-year-old man began feeling sick to his stomach after eating breakfast and continued to feel ill throughout the day. Two days later he went to the hospital complaining of an upset stomach and chest pains. The medical malpractice lawsuit asserts that these symptoms should have prompted the doctor to perform a more complete investigation of the man, including a determination of whether he had a heart condition. However, the man was released without such determination.
Two days after being sent home, the man suffered a heart attack and died.
Evidence presented at trial argued that the "standard of care" in this instance required the defendant to consider a cardiac problem and rule it out before sending the patient home. Further, the attending physician should have ordered blood tests that could have led to the correct diagnosis, but these tests weren't ordered.
Where a doctor, nurse, or other health care professional fails to meet the appropriate standard of care, they may found guilty of medical malpractice and responsible to pay significant damages to the victim and in the instance of a wrongful death such as here, to his or her family.
For more information or if you believe that you or a loved one was harmed as the result of medical malpractice, we urge you to contact the experienced Los Angeles medical malpractice attorneys at Bostwick & Peterson, LLP for an immediate consultation.
