$525,000 Settlement for Failure to Diagnose Coronary Artery Disease

David Fried represented a woman in her 50s who woke with chest pain. An emergency room evaluation found very minimally abnormal EKG results; everything else was normal and the pain subsided. She was told to see her private medical doctor (PMD), which she did a few days later. Her PMD felt her pain was muscular and not cardiac (heart) related). A few days later, she had a heart attack and died. Upon autopsy it was found that she had multi-vessel occlusion (blockage in multiple coronary arteries of the heart). Mr. Fried asserted that the woman required EKG and cardiac enzyme testing, and if abnormal, a cardiac stress test. A stress test would have been abnormal, and the occlusions would have been diagnosed and treated, precluding the heart attack. There were significant causation issues in this case, including that the heart damage causing death may not have come from the occluded vessels. The decedent had a minimally paying job, and so lost earnings claims were limited. However, she did leave a husband and 2 children who were already in their late teens.