Kaiser – Failure To Diagnose Heart Attack

Our Kaiser cardiac medicine team obtained a pre-arbitration settlement in a 7-figure amount on behalf of the surviving spouse and adult son of a 49-year-old San Mateo County husband and father who suffered a fatal heart attack after his Kaiser physicians delayed in carrying out appropriate diagnostic studies and definitive treatment for symptoms suggesting an impending heart attack. The decedent, who had been a Kaiser member for many years, made complaints to his primary Permanente Group physician three weeks before his death of chest pain and shortness of breath. That doctor’s examination and subsequent testing revealed that the decedent had already probably suffered a small heart attack and was at high risk for another heart attack. An angiogram was scheduled for the future, and nitroglycerin tablets were prescribed to the patient. The decedent continued to have chest pain, but repeated telephone calls to the advice nurse were unsuccessful in getting him seen on an urgent basis. His fatal heart attack occurred the day before the scheduled angiogram was to have been performed.