A pulmonary embolism, or PE, is a medical emergency and must be immediately treated by a healthcare professional or it could lead to the death of a patient. Pulmonary embolisms are blood clots that occur in the lungs, similar to how a blood clot in the brain and cause a stroke or a blood clot in the heart can cause a heart attack. The cause of a blood clot in the lungs is usually caused by a migrating blood clot from the leg known as deep vein thrombosis, or DVT. This DVT breaks off and gets lodged in the lungs, causing a PE.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately 900,000 people could be affected each year in the United States. It is established between 60,000 and 100,000 Americans die each year from this DVT/PE blood clot, with 10 to 30% dying in the first month of diagnosis. Sudden death occurs in about 25% of these people and that is the first and only symptom. About 33% of people will have a recurrence of this DVT/PE within 10 years. Approximately one-half of the suffers will have some long-term complication in the limb where the DVT originated from (such as permanent swelling, pain, discoloration, scaling, or pins and needles).
Needles to say the statistics are shocking and scary. This is why PE need to be immediately treated by a healthcare professional or it could be a serious instance of Oregon medical malpractice.
Under Oregon common law, or judge-made law, a physician owes a duty of reasonable care to a patient that at reasonably prudent physician with like experiences, training, and skill would exercise under similar circumstances. This duty means that a physician must act as the average physician would have under the same circumstances. In the case of a pulmonary embolism, a physician must take certain steps to protect the health and safety of a patient or the doctor could be liable for medical malpractice.
A competent physician must take the following steps:
If any of these steps were not performed or performed in an unreasonable way that a reasonably prudent physician in similar circumstances would not have performed, there may be a claim for Oregon medical malpractice. Generally the failure to diagnose a PE comes from a hospital not triaging the patient high enough to get immediate care, and the failure of the doctor to perform the appropriate tests to treat the most important and dangerous condition first—the PE—rather than other conditions that could be causing the same symptoms.
A PE is a medical emergency that must be immediately treated by a healthcare provider. The failure to do so is not only likely to lead to life-changing injuries, but can also be life-threatening. If you or a loved one have been injured due to a healthcare provider misdiagnosing a PE, please call our Bend medical malpractice lawyer to learn what your rights to compensation may be.
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