Heart Attack Misdiagnosis Lawyer in Florida
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), around 805,000 people in the United States have a heart attack every year. That is about one heart attack every 40 seconds. Unfortunately, doctors misdiagnose many of these heart attacks, resulting in devastating consequences and serious complications.
If a doctor misdiagnosed a heart attack and you or a loved one suffered injuries, contact the heart attack misdiagnosis lawyer at law firm of Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys. Our legal professionals can provide you with a thorough review of your choices, determine your eligibility for financial compensation, and support you in pursuing the maximum damages possible.
Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys: How We Can Help You?
Attorneys Frank and Jennifer Fernandez from the Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys take on a wide variety of personal injury claims. We represent people harmed in motor vehicle accidents, motorcycle crashes, medical malpractice incidents, slip and falls, and other acts of negligence resulting in personal injury and wrongful death.
Over the years, we have successfully handled thousands of personal injury cases throughout Florida and secured over $100 million in jury verdicts and negotiated settlements for our clients.
While we know that our long-standing reputation as experienced personal injury lawyers is critical to our ongoing success, our priority has always been helping our clients put their lives back together. That is why if you suffered harm due to the misdiagnosis of your heart attack, reach out to the Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys today to discuss your legal options and review how our team can help you.
Common Reasons For Heart Attack Misdiagnosis in Florida
Even with all the advanced diagnostic tools that hospitals and medical professionals use today, mistakes can happen, even when diagnosing a heart attack.
However, doctors frequently misdiagnose heart attacks because of:
- Overlooking a heart attack diagnosis in women
- Overlooking a heart attack in a patient because of their age
- Overlooking a heart attack because the medical professional is only relying on the electrocardiogram (ECG) test results or they improperly read the ECG results
- Failure to take a thorough medical history
- Failure to perform a thorough physical examination
- Failure to consider a heart attack in patients that appear to be healthy
- Failure to order appropriate tests in a timely manner
- Failure to consult a cardiac specialist
- Laboratory errors
No matter the reason why your heart attack was misdiagnosed, if you suffered harm because of it, you should consider reaching out to a Florida-experienced heart attack misdiagnosis lawyer as soon as possible.
At Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys, our skilled legal team can promptly review your claim, figure out whether you have a viable case, and help you pursue the justice and financial damages you deserve.
The Consequences of a Heart Attack Misdiagnosis
If a victim of a heart attack does not receive appropriate treatment, they can end up suffering permanent damage that can even lead to death. However, if the victim survives, they can suffer from permanent disability or endure lifelong pain because of the misdiagnoses.
They may also have to deal with:
- Permanent brain damage, resulting in substantial impairment
- Readmission to the hospital after the initial treatment is received
- Scarring of the heart
- Muscle damage
In addition, victims of heart attack misdiagnoses may be significantly weakened, which can ultimately prevent them from engaging in activities they used to participate in before their injuries.
How Can You Bring a Legal Claim Following a Heart Attack Misdiagnosis
Unfortunately, a misdiagnosis alone is not enough to prove medical malpractice. Instead, if you want to be able to pursue legal action following misdiagnoses, you will have to establish that the medical care provider or the health care facility breached their duty of care and you sustained harm as a result of their negligence.
More specifically, you will need to establish these elements:
Doctor-Patient Relationship
To pursue a medical malpractice claim following a heart attack misdiagnosis, you need to establish that there was a relationship between you and the healthcare professional. This relationship usually forms when the professional agrees to treat the patient, and the patient agrees to receive treatment from the health care professional.
A Duty of Care
In the medical field, certain types of standards are recognized as acceptable types of treatments by other healthcare professionals under the same or similar circumstances.
As a result, if you present yourself to the doctor with apparent signs of a heart attack, your healthcare professional may be responsible for identifying these systems and ensuring you get the appropriate testing to get a correct diagnosis. If they do not meet these standards, the healthcare worker may have acted negligently.
The Negligence Caused the Trauma
However, if you want to pursue a medical practice legal claim, you must show more than that the healthcare professional violated the standard of care. Rather, you would also have to show that the healthcare professional’s negligence caused the injury and that this harm would not have occurred in the absence of negligence. As a result, if doctors addressed a mistake before a condition deteriorated, a patient may not receive compensation for the harm endured.
Financial Damages Resulted From the Injuries
Due to the costs involved with pursuing a medical malpractice claim, you will also have to show that you suffered significant monetary damages because of the malpractice. The cost of pursuing a suit for minor monetary damages may cost more than the recovery.
Following a missed heart attack, keep track of your expenses and losses related to your injuries following the misdiagnosis. This evidence can give an attorney a better idea of the damages you have incurred and how much compensation you need to pursue to cover these costs.
The Damages You Can Pursue Following a Heart Attack Misdiagnosis in Florida
Depending on the circumstances of the incident, you may be entitled to compensation following your missed heart attack. In Florida, this financial recovery can be split up into the:
Economic Damages
These damages refer to payment for the actual losses that occurred due to medical malpractice.
These damages usually include payment for:
- Medical expenses related to doctor visits, surgeries, hospitalization, prescription medications, lab tests, and other medical treatments
- Future ongoing medical treatments and services
- Lost income, opportunities, and bonuses
- Reduced earning capacity
- Rehabilitation costs
Non-Economic Damages
Non-economic damages refer to payment for the hard-to-prove losses that result from an incident, such as:
- Physical pain and suffering
- Mental anguish
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of fertility
- Loss of companionship
- Loss of consortium
- Disfigurement and inconvenience
Wrongful Death Damages
If a heart attack misdiagnosis leads to wrongful death, the decedent’s survivors may pursue financial damages related to their losses, including compensation for:
- A loss of support and services that the deceased’s had provided to family members
- Mental pain and suffering
- A loss of companionship and protection
- A loss of parental instruction, companionship, and guidance, and
- Funeral and medical expenses that were paid by the surviving family members
The decedent’s estate may also recover certain types of monetary recovery. However, to know which of these damages you can pursue after a heart attack misdiagnosis in Florida, speak to an experienced attorney at Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys. Our lawyers can review the extent of your losses, determine which types of financial recovery you can go after, and help you fight for every last dollar you deserve.
Who You Can Hold Responsible for a Heart Attack Misdiagnosis
Numerous medical professionals can make negligent errors and fail to diagnose a heart attack properly.
However, in general, these medical care professionals include:
- Emergency room doctors
- Nurses
- Interns
- Medical students
- Consulting cardiologists
- Family physicians
- Physician assistants
- Lab technicians
- General practitioners
However, to understand who you can hold liable for your misdiagnosed heart attack, discuss the incident with our experienced heart attack misdiagnosis lawyers. Our legal professionals can help you figure out what happened, who you can hold at fault for your injuries, and hold all those responsible accountable for your harm and losses.
Dealing With the Insurance Company After a Heart Attack Misdiagnosis
In a medical malpractice suit, the patient will usually go after the liable party’s insurance company and fight for compensation rather than trying to secure financial compensation from the responsible medical care worker. However, working with the insurance company does not mean the process of obtaining money will be more straightforward.
In truth, getting money from the insurance company can involve an incredibly challenging ordeal. This is because the insurance company is a business that wants to make the most money it can for the organization and its shareholders. The less they have to pay out in claims, the more money they can make.
That is why insurance companies and their adjusters will do everything they can to get you to admit to something or do something that can hurt your legal case and affect the amount of compensation you can obtain.
Thankfully, you do not have to take on these insurance companies alone. When you work with a skilled heart attack misdiagnosis lawyer from Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys, our legal professionals can handle these discussions on your behalf and ensure that the company does not try to take advantage of your situation.
Contact Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys Today to Discuss Your Legal Options
If you or a loved one sustained harm from a heart attack that was misdiagnosed by a healthcare professional, just know you may have legal options available and financial remedies you can pursue. More importantly, you do not have to figure out what these options entail alone.
Instead, when you work with a skilled heart attack misdiagnosis lawyer from Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys, our legal team can take on this complicated legal process for you while you focus on your healing and fight for the justice and financial damages you deserve.
In fact, when you retain our legal professionals, we can promptly begin looking into your case, review the facts of what happened, determine the viability of your legal claim, and figure out the legal actions you can take next.
From there, we can:
- Investigate the incident and gather evidence that can help establish liability and the extent of your damages.
- Bring in specific experts to help validate your legal case, such as other medical professionals and financial specialists.
- Go over your questions and concerns and ensure you receive the proper communication throughout this challenging time so you can make the best decisions for your future.
- Take on the other parties involved, including the insurance company, and fight for the just settlement offer you need.
- Make sure that the proper legal motions and files are submitted before the statute of limitations expires.
- Decide if we need to take your case to trial, especially if the other side is unwilling to provide you with an appropriate settlement amount and fight for every lost dollar you are entitled to.
For more information regarding the legal issues involved with a heart attack misdiagnosis or if you want to review the legal options you may have, contact the Fernandez Firm Accident Injury Attorneys today at (813) 278-1032 for your free case consultation and find out how our skilled personal injury lawyers can take on this fight, protect your legal rights, and go after the money you need.
The Fernandez Firm – Tampa Office
2503 W Swann Ave #100,
Tampa, FL 33609
Phone: (813) 278-1032