Albuquerque Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack Lawyer

Experienced Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack Attorney in Albuquerque
The prompt and correct diagnosis of serious medical conditions can make a life-or-death difference to the patient. Unfortunately, doctors sometimes make preventable mistakes that lead to misdiagnoses of conditions like heart attacks. If that has happened to you or someone you love, an Albuquerque failure to diagnose heart attack lawyer can help you hold the people who made the mistake accountable for the harm they have caused.
Work With Branch Law Firm
Here at Branch Law Firm, we provide compassionate legal services and robust representation for victims of medical malpractice. We’ve handled a wide variety of malpractice cases successfully, getting our clients the compensation they deserve and helping them secure their futures moving forward from tragic medical errors. We can help you, too.
Reasons to Hire a Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack Lawyer
In 2024, the CDC recorded 4,563 total deaths due to heart disease in New Mexico, including many heart attack deaths. While many people survive initial heart attacks, the seven-year survival rate post-myocardial infarction is 74%. Not getting appropriate care for your heart attack can cause serious damage to the heart, leaving you prone to future heart attacks and heart failure.
If you didn’t receive the medical attention you needed during a myocardial infarction, you can hire a failure to diagnose heart attack lawyer to help you pursue compensation. Your lawyer can identify the liable parties and the full extent of your damages. They can use their experience in handling other failure to diagnose heart attack cases to your benefit. Let Branch Law Firm focus on handling the details of your case while you focus on healing from the harm that you have suffered.
Warning Signs of a Heart Attack
Heart attacks can be sudden and intense, or they can come on slowly with mild pain or discomfort. You should seek a heart attack diagnosis if you are experiencing:
- Chest discomfort that may last more than a few minutes or go away and then return
- Discomfort in other nearby areas of the body
- Shortness of breath
- Cold sweats
- Experiencing a rapid or irregular heartbeat
- Nausea or vomiting
- Feeling unusually tired or lightheaded
It should be fairly obvious to the doctors in the UNM Hospital emergency room or at another local facility that you have had a heart attack. A failure to diagnose at this stage could be considered medical negligence.
The Dangers of Silent Heart Attacks
Silent heart attacks don’t have the typical symptoms of a heart attack, which can make them harder to identify. However, they still cause damage to the heart. Researchers estimate that between 1 in 5 and 2 in 5 heart attacks are silent. Symptoms of a silent heart attack can include:
- Feeling like you have the flu
- Soreness in the chest or upper back
- Aching jaws, arms, or upper backs
- Extreme fatigue
- Indigestion
Silent heart attacks are generally caused by coronary artery disease. You’re more at risk of developing this problem if you are overweight, don’t get regular physical activity, have high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or high blood sugar, use tobacco products, feel stressed a lot of the time, or have COVID-19 or another infection.
The fact that silent heart attacks are harder to catch doesn’t mean that doctors shouldn’t be able to diagnose them when people turn to them for help. If your doctor failed to diagnose a silent heart attack and it went on to lead to other heart troubles, you may be able to file a claim against them for medical negligence.
FAQs
Can I File a Legal Claim for Failure to Diagnose a Heart Attack?
You can file a legal claim for failure to diagnose a heart attack if a doctor did not catch the heart attack when they should have or misdiagnosed it as something else. Heart attacks can lead to significant damages, including high hospital bills, lost wages, or even lost future earning capacity. Filing a claim can help you recover compensation to help make up for them.
Can a Person Survive a Heart Attack Without Medical Attention?
A person can survive a heart attack without medical attention, but it’s very dangerous and can lead to severe long-term health complications or death. People sometimes suffer what are known as silent heart attacks, in which the relatively minor pain and other symptoms are mistaken for different issues, such as stress or the flu. The body can heal these smaller injuries by forming scar tissue, but major heart attacks are harder to survive.
How Much Can You Claim for Misdiagnosis?
How much you can claim for misdiagnosis depends on the extent of the damages you have suffered as a result of a provider’s medical negligence. Your claim can cover damages like medical bills, the cost of future medical care, lost wages from missing work while you are receiving treatment, and the loss of future income should you become unable to return to work. Branch Law Firm can help you determine an estimated value of your claim.
What Can Be Misdiagnosed as a Heart Attack?
There are several medical conditions that can be misdiagnosed as a heart attack because they cause chest pain, shortness of breath, and discomfort that mimics this serious problem. Examples include acid reflux, gastroesophageal reflux disease, gallstones, esophagitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, asthma, severe fatigue, muscle strain, shingles, and panic attacks. Your doctor should be able to rule out these differential diagnoses quickly to get you accurately diagnosed.
Your Albuquerque Failure to Diagnose Heart Attack Attorney
If you’ve suffered a heart attack that initially went undiagnosed, your medical condition may have worsened as a result. You can hold those responsible for what happened liable with the help of an Albuquerque failure to diagnose heart attack attorney.
The team at Branch Law Firm is here to help. We have been in practice since 1966, and over those many decades, we have gained a clear understanding of how to use New Mexico laws around failure to diagnose heart attacks to get our clients the compensation they deserve and need to move on with their lives. Contact us to schedule an initial consultation today.