Predicting heart attacks

Doctors and emergency room staff can often anticipate an imminent heart attack by:

· Carefully reviewing patient history

· Conducting a thorough physical exam

· Electrocardiogram testing (ECG or EKG)

· Blood tests

Detecting heart attacks

When a heart attack is not anticipated and prevented, it can still be treated successfully if quickly recognized. Prompt treatment can save a heart attack patient’s life and/or prevent permanent injury. In order to properly diagnose a heart attack, health care professionals must recognize and respond to the symptoms. These symptoms include:

· Chest pain

· Pain radiating through the shoulder, arm, or jaw

· Indigestion symptoms

· Nausea

· Dizziness

· Shortness of breath

· Weakness

If a patient displays these or other heart attack symptoms an ECG or EKG and blood tests should be performed immediately. Elevated levels of the enzyme tropan, in the blood, can indicate a heart attack. Another enzyme, called Creatine phosphokinase (CPK), can indicate tissue or muscle death. If these tests indicate the likelihood of a heart attack, more extensive tests should follow.

Common misdiagnosis

Because heart attack symptoms are similar to symptoms of other medical problems heart attacks are often misdiagnosed as:

· Heartburn

· Acid reflux

· Anxiety attack

· Musculoskeletal pain

· Bronchitis

· Pneumonia

· Esophagitis

· Angina

· Gallstones

Common mistakes that led to undiagnosed heart attacks

Besides simply mistaking heart attack symptoms for those of other health problems, doctors and emergency room staff sometimes don’t consider the possibility of a heart attack in people who seem unlikely victims. Women are at a much greater risk than is commonly believed, and young people can suffer heart attacks. Certain medications and other underlying health problems can cause heart attacks in people who don’t obviously fit the profile for a heart attack candidate. Common factors leading to heart attack misdiagnosis include:

· Failure to consider heart attacks in women

· Failure to consider heart attacks in younger people

· Failure to review a patients medical history, including suspect medications

· Failure to recognize symptoms

· Failure to administer the necessary tests

· Misreading EKG results

· Over reliance on EKG results

During a heart attack, an artery providing the heart with oxygen-rich blood is blocked by blood platelets. The heart thus becomes oxygen deprived and heart muscle cells begin to die. Permanent damage can be caused in a very short time.

Signs & Symptoms

Heart attacks can occur quickly but there may be warning signs and symptoms. These can include:

• Pressure, squeezing, or pain in the chest

• Shortness of breath

• Sweating, nausea, or shortness of breath

• Back, stomach, neck, or jaw pain or discomfort

• Irregular or rapid heart beats

These symptoms may develop over minutes, hours, or days before the heart attack occurs. It is also possible to have a ‘silent’ heart attack, occurring without symptoms, although these are most common in diabetics.

Treatments

Because permanent heart damage, or even death, can occur very quickly after the onset of the heart attack, symptoms should be treated as a medical emergency and treatment sought immediately. There are a number of medications that should be administered by medical health professionals immediately upon even the suspicion of a heart attack. These include:

• Oxygen

• Aspirin

• Beta blockers

• Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme (ACE) Inhibitors

• Thrombolytic medicines

There are also certain diagnostic tests that should be performed to verify whether a heart attack has occurred and if so, how much damage the heart has sustained.

• Electrocardiogram (ECG, EKG)

• Chest X-Rays

• Blood Tests

Misdiagnosis

Once a doctor or first responder is notified, the key to surviving and recovering from a heart attack is proper diagnosis. Diagnosis is first made based on symptoms, many of which mimic the symptoms of a number of other conditions.

• Angina: Characterized by pain in the chest lasting for a few minutes, angina is a side-effect of coronary artery disease. While abnormal angina can signal the onset of a heart attack, the pain usually passes.

• Heartburn & Indigestion: Pain associated with these common conditions can be mistaken for heart attack pain.

If an improper diagnosis is made based on symptoms, the appropriate medications will not be administered and tests will not be performed. The heart can sustain serious and irreparable damage. People who suffered from, and survived, an undiagnosed heart attack have an increased risk of a second heart attack.

Many heart attacks that go unaddressed or undiagnosed are deadly. The National Institutes of Health estimates that approximately half of the people suffering from heart attacks die will die within an hour of experiencing the first symptoms.

Legal Options

When a heart attack is misdiagnosed and further tests and treatments are not undertaken to rule out the possibility of a heart attack, there may be an issue of medical negligence. Victims may be entitled to compensation for medical bills and pain and suffering incurred as a result of the misdiagnosis. When misdiagnosis of a heart attack results in death, a wrongful death lawsuit may be appropriate.

Diagnosing medical conditions is complicated, and proving a misdiagnosis can be equally so. According to Salt Lake City medical malpractice attorney Ryan Springer of G. Eric Nielson & Associates, the medical field has its own language, which can be impossible to understand for those outside the field. The complexity of the language and issues makes medical malpractice law an area where it is essential to have legal representation skilled in medical malpractice issues.

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As we age, it is important to know the warning signs and symptoms of heart attacks. Heart attacks can strike males and females of any age. Though almost half of fatal heart attacks…

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How To Diagnose Heart Attack Symptoms