Expert Witness Case #25
Mr. D was a 53-year-old man who was a patient of Dr. L, a primary care internist.
In 2014 he was seen for chest discomfort, and underwent a stress test that was normal.
Over the following years, he was seen multiple times without any other cardiac issues.
On May 24, 2018 he was seen and again noted chest pain.
Another stress test was ordered, and was scheduled to be done several weeks later.
The following day, Mr. D suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and died.
The plaintiff’s expert witness in the lawsuit wrote the following opinion:
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The plaintiffs offered to settle the lawsuit with the medical group for $1,000,000 in March 2020.
The plaintiff disclosed an economics expert:
The trial was originally scheduled for April 2021, but got pushed back numerous times.
Both sides eventually reached a confidential settlement.
MedMalReviewer Opinion:
1) The patient had chest pain 4 days prior to the final primary care visit. He did not have any chest pain since then. There are arguments on both sides of this case.
Argument to send him immediately to the ED:
Numerous risk factors
EKG changes
Argument to schedule a stress test:
No current chest pain
Last cardiac symptoms >72 hours prior
EKG changes suggesting previous MI, not current MI
Unfortunately our management of chest pain is often not driven by the most common scenario, but the rare black-swan event like this case.
2) The expert witness opinion in this case is very thorough. While you may not agree with his opinion, he has clearly spent hours digging through the patient’s record. It is well summarized. It is also clear that this was actually written by a physician. Many expert opinions are templates that attorneys have filled with legalese, obviously not written by a physician.
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