On November 7, 2019, a 33-year-old woman collapsed suddenly at her home. Despite best efforts from first responders, cardiac activity could not be restored. An autopsy revealed the young mother died from impacts of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This was not a diagnosis that was new to her or her family as she had been under the care of a cardiologist for the seven years prior. However, her condition had been worsening as demonstrated by her more recent examinations, echocardiograms, and heart rhythm monitoring. Yet, throughout their time as physician-patient, her doctor had not referred her to a heart rhythm specialist, nor had he ordered any additional tests available to his young patient, like a cardiac MRI or stress test. The patient was also not fully informed of the risks of sudden cardiac death in individuals with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, despite her history of fainting, and was not evaluated for an implantable cardioverter defibrillator–a device that tracks your heart rate and delivers an electric shock to restore a normal heartbeat if the heart is beating chaotically. As a result of this deviation from a standard of care, the decedent’s husband has filed a wrongful death / medical malpractice lawsuit on behalf of himself and her estate including their two young children.
Case Stats
- This gives referring lawyers and the outside world the exact same information we use in-house for quality control. Intakes need to be accepted / declined and cases need to be resolved! Justice delayed is justice denied.
- Intakes Under Review 45
- Referred Cases from other lawyers state and nationwide 94%
- Median Time First Contact to Decline 14 days (most cases are reviewed w/ an indication of merit within 72 hours)
- Median Time First Contact to Accepted/Filed Cases 9 weeks
- Median Time Case Filing to Resolution 1.8 years
By Christina Acampora | posted on February 15th, 2022