Misdiagnosis of Pulmonary Embolism and How To Claim Compensation
An undiagnosed pulmonary embolism can cause heart failure, threatening the life of the patient. If medical professionals failed to diagnose this condition when the patient sought their help, it may be possible to make a claim for compensation.
Missing the symptoms and signs
A misdiagnosis of this life-threatening condition can occur for a variety of reasons:
- A failure to recognise the possible symptoms of breathlessness and chest pain and a cough
- A failure to consider the patient's risk factors which might have flagged up their susceptibility to this condition
- A failure to refer the patient for or to carry out adequate testing when this would have been appropriate
- A misinterpretation of test results, leading to an incorrect diagnosis
Failing to consider risk factors
Making an assessment of risk factors associated with pulmonary embolism can be key to identifying that the patient is susceptible to this life-threatening condition.
The risk factors related to developing a pulmonary embolism may be personal to the patient or may be related to their circumstances.
For example, the patient may be in hospital and recovering from surgery or is unwell and immobile for an extended period of time. They may have recently undergone a long-distance flight. All of these situations increase the risk of PE.
The patient may be overweight, elderly or pregnant or have an inherited risk.
A failure to make this assessment may be crucial to the patient's long-term health and may justify a claim for compensation.
Missing DVT
A pulmonary embolism is an occasional development from Deep Vein Thrombosis. The patient may not know that they are suffering with DVT prior to developing a pulmonary embolism but if they are experiencing symptoms which a medical professional fails to diagnose, leaving the patient to suffer poor consequences, it may possible to make a claim.
When to claim compensation
If medical professionals miss the opportunity to diagnose either DVT or a pulmonary embolism, they may be considered to have been negligent in the quality of their care.
If the patient suffers a poor long-term outcome, which would not have been the case with an acceptable level of care, it may be possible to make a claim for compensation.
A successful compensation claim will address issues of the patient's pain, suffering and financial losses caused by the negligence.
For example, if an individual has been left restricted in their capacity to work and facing a drop in income due to the effects of the medical negligence, these financial losses would be incorporated into the claim.
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