Failure to Diagnose a Pulmonary Embolism Could be New York Medical Malpractice

Failure to Diagnose a Pulmonary Embolism: Understanding this Serious Type of New York Medical Malpractice

A pulmonary embolism, or PE, is a serious medical condition.  When a patient is experiencing the possible symptoms and effects of a PE, it should be an immediate trip to the emergency room. When this occur, patients need to be timely and quickly treated.  This is because a PE is a blood clot in the arteries of the lung.  This blocks or restricts the flow of oxygen to the rest of a patient’s body.  The longer that the blood clot is there, the longer there will be a deprivation, and the longer that there will be damage to the lungs and rest of the body.  If the PE is there for too long, it could be due to New York medical malpractice and result in a wrongful death because of a failure to diagnose a pulmonary embolism.

A PE usually originates from deep vein thrombosis or another type of blood clot in the legs.  This is because the last place oxygenated blood typically flows is to the legs and then the lungs, then it is pushed into the heart for circulation throughout the body.  Thus, a blood clot in the leg will next go to the lunch where it can become lodged.  This means that the legs can be the culprit in some blood clots.

When a patient has the symptoms of a PE, they should be triaged high and immediately seen.  Some symptoms of a PE include the following:

• Coughing for no reason, and coughing up blood;
• Chest pain;
• Back pain;
• Shoulder pain;
• Unexplained wheezing;
• Dizziness or lightheadedness;
• Profuse sweating but for no reason;
• Leg pain;
• Inability to catch one’s breath;
• Unable to take a full breath; and
• Many other symptoms.

When these symptoms are present, hospitals and medical staff must immediately begin to treat the patient for a PE.  These means that they need to be seen and administered either a clot buster medication or go into surgery to remove the clot.  If they do not, a patient could die and it could be New York medical malpractice.

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