A pulmonary embolism is a very serious and potentially life-threatening medical emergency. A pulmonary embolism, or a PE, is when a blood clot gets lodged in the lungs. This obstructs part or all of your pulmonary artery. As with strokes and heart attacks, the saying goes “time is tissue,” and the longer that the PE is left lodged in your lungs, the longer that your body will suffer damage. This damage is usually localized to the lungs, but it can cause damage to other parts of your body that are operating at an oxygen deprivation. Hence why the failure to diagnose a pulmonary embolism could be very serious Oregon medical malpractice and victims should speak with a Portland medical malpractice lawyer.
The symptoms of a PE may not always be easily detectable as a PE. This is because the symptoms mirror a heart attack or stroke, and may be the second or third condition checked for or ruled out before it can be diagnosed. This is scary because the longer it takes, the longer the damage. Time is tissue. In addition, the signs of a PE can range from mild shortness of breath to sudden death. According to research, almost a million people suffer from a PE in just the United States each year and about 25% of those cases are sudden death.
Some of the symptoms of a PE include the following:
Despite the symptoms above which clearly indicate distress, when a healthcare provider fails to run diagnostics to diagnose a PE or rule it out, it can be Oregon medical malpractice. While a PE is a rather common condition for a healthcare provider to assess and treat, some newer residents may not be aware of this or may fall into compliance without checking all avenues of treatment. Meaning, some healthcare providers may just complete the same checks in a routine process over and over again, failing to think independently. This is because some hospitals can grow a “churn and burn” mentality which focuses on treating the obvious traumas without much assessment for the more difficult applications.
This means that many times a healthcare provider may forget to check for a PE when he or she should. Some common reasons why a PE is misdiagnosed due to Oregon medical malpractice includes the following:
Even short delays in treating a patient with a PE could result in very serious complications which may have huge impacts on a patient. This may be Oregon medical malpractice and should be evaluated by a Portland medical malpractice lawyer.
If this may have happened to you in Central Oregon, Sisters, Redmond, Deschutes County, Salem, Portland, Eugene, Corvallis, Albany, Prineville, Gresham, Hillsboro, Medford, and any other city, including Bend, Oregon where our main law office is located, please call Kuhlman Law, LLC by dialing (541) 385-1999 to learn what your rights to compensation you may have. You may also contact us using our easy and convenient “contact us” box at the bottom of our website. If we accept your case, we will conduct a thorough investigation to get you the answers you deserve, all for free. There is no risk, and you only pay us if we recover compensation for you.