A man presents to an emergency clinic due issues surrounding a perirectal abscess, notably severe pain and a high fever.
After performing an examination on the patient, the emergency clinic called for him to be taken to the emergency room immediately.
While at the emergency room (ER) the patient was seem by the emergency room doctor.
The ER doctor made a determination that the patient needed surgery as soon as possible and scheduled the surgery for the next morning.
However, due to the fact the patient was obese, a diabetic, and suffering from hypertension, the ER doctor order tests to be performed, including an EKG.
The EKG was performed, however the results would not be available until later the next day.
The next morning the patient was prepped for surgery.
While prepping the patient, the anesthesiologist noted that the patient was obese and suffered from shortness of breath.
The anesthesiologist also noted that the EKG tracing showed some abnormalities.
Without the interpretation from a cardiologist, the surgeon and anesthesiologist proceeded with the surgery.
At the conclusion of the surgery, the patient suffered a massive heart attack and died.
The plaintiff’s medical experts, in the wrongful death case against the surgeon and anesthesiologist noted that the standard of care demanded that they wait to perform the surgery until they knew the results of the tests ordered.
This is because surgery can place a lot of strain and pressure on the heart.
It is really important to know whether a patient can handle this type of strain.
When a patient is presenting the issues this patient presented, the experts concluded that it was a breach in the standard of care to perform the surgery without having the results of the pre-operation tests.
If your loved one has died in an emergency room, or during or after a medical procedure because of a heart attack, this is what we invite you to do.
It costs you absolutely nothing to do this.
Pick up the phone and give us a call.
We can be reached at 301-850-4832.
We answer Maryland medical malpractice questions like yours all the time and we would be glad to listen to your story and help get rid of some of your worry and concern about the Maryland medical malpractice process.
