Losing a loved one is one of the most difficult things an individual will face in their lifetime. Having to say goodbye to them is painful enough when they have been ripped from our lives unexpectedly. For one Buffalo woman, not only did she have to go through the pain of losing her husband to a heart attack, she had to go through it twice.
A Buffalo woman has filed a medical malpractice suit against the doctor that pronounced her husband dead in the emergency room when she believes he was still alive. Her husband suffered a heart attack last year while at the grocery store and was taken to the local E.R. where he was pronounced dead within minutes of arriving. When the man’s wife arrived, she was told of her husband’s death and taken to see him.
The wife states that she noticed what seemed like movement in her husband’s limbs, eyes and chest. When she asked the attending doctor about the movement, he reportedly told her it was normal and that the young man had a lot of life in him to expel. Two hours after the man’s apparent death, the physician finally checked for vital signs and was alarmed to find he had a pulse.
The man was transported to a nearby medical center where he was pronounced dead for the second time. It was found that he suffered a collapsed lung which was likely the cause of death, seeing how a stent was put in the artery responsible for the heart attack.
It is the wife’s belief that her husband died of respiratory failure because of the untreated collapsed lung and not the heart attack. She has sought legal representation and is pursuing a medical malpractice claim against the attending physician and the entity that owns the hospital where her husband had been taken. For the victims of medical malpractice and their families, seeking legal representation is an important step in identifying responsible parties and holding them accountable.
Source: WGRZ.com, “Widow Files Medical Malpractice Suit After Husband Dies Twice,” Kelly Dudzik, Oct. 12, 2015
