Sommers Schwartz attorney Kenneth Watkins filed a medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of the estate of a woman who died from complications arising from a cardiologist negligently performance of an unnecessary and invasive diagnostic procedure. 

The decedent was a healthy and active 69-year-old woman who neither drank nor smoked, had no previous history of chest pain, and only had a history of high cholesterol, hypertension, and migraines. According to the complaint, she admitted herself to the defendant hospital’s emergency room out of caution because of chest “pressure” she experienced after shoveling snow a day earlier. The pressure lasted briefly and had resolved itself within 30 minutes after exerting herself.

The decedent had no complaints of chest pain or pressure at the time of her admission, and her preliminary tests were unremarkable. Notwithstanding her normal lab results, lack of discomfort, and the absence of a history of chest pain, the defendant cardiologist ordered a host of invasive, percutaneous, and inappropriate diagnostic procedures including angiography and heart catheterization. 

While performing these unnecessary procedures, the cardiologist caused a perforation on the patient’s heart that he then failed to properly address with pericardiocentesis, the inflation of a balloon in the coronary artery, and the placement of a stent to seal off the perforation, among other acts of negligence. As a direct result of these acts and omissions, the patient passed away. 

The hospital malpractice lawsuit seeks compensation for the decedent’s pain and suffering, medical and funeral expenses, her family’s loss of companionship and services, and other damages.