Potentially overlooked heart failure in children

When it comes to medical malpractice, doctors often overlook or miss symptoms during routine checkups or specialty treatments. This can lead to serious health issues for patients. Unfortunately, there has been an increase in heart failure diagnoses among children. These young patients were not previous heart disease patients. If you’re an Arizona resident and think your child may have been a victim of heart disease misdiagnosis, this information could be helpful since it pertains to your case.

Retroactive analysis

The National Library of Medicine used a retrospective design to review the electronic medical records of patients under the age of 21 with no known heart disease who were hospitalized due to new-onset heart failure between 2003 and 2015. Records were evaluated for missed heart failure diagnoses and medical outcomes to prove medical malpractice.

Results of the study

Out of the young patients analyzed for possible medical malpractice, 191 met the inclusion criteria. Nearly half (49%) of the diagnoses were missed during the first patient visit. Doctors also misdiagnosed many of the patients: 29% were diagnosed with a bacterial infection, 22% were diagnosed with a viral illness and 21% were told they had hepatitis or gastroenteritis. Several factors were included in the analysis. Primary care providers caused patients to endure symptoms for an average of seven days, even though these patients had more than two heart failure symptoms. Upon further evaluation, the National Library of Medicine found that this was due to errors in 49% of the patients’ medical records. Half of the patients did not have any documentation of differential diagnoses. This indicates that about 50% of children were not treated as early as they could have been, which likely led to further health complications.

If your family finds itself in this position, it’s important to speak with an attorney who has experience with medical malpractice cases. The attorney can review the details of your case and try to help you and your family get the settlement you deserve.