Was Your Stroke Misdiagnosed?

On average, an individual in the United States suffers from a stroke every 40 seconds and someone dies from a stroke every 3 minutes and 11 seconds. Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in this country, and it is also the top cause of serious, long-term disability. Tragically, over 165,000 individuals die each year as a result of a stroke.

While these statistics can seem alarming to the average individual, they hit much closer to home if you are a stroke survivor yourself. As you have experienced, strokes do not discriminate. Strokes happen to people of all ages, races, and genders.

What Is A Stroke?

The most common signs and symptoms of a stroke include:

• Sudden weakness or numbness of the face, arm, or leg, particularly if only one side of the body is affected
• Sudden confusion, difficulty speaking, or comprehending
• Sudden trouble with vision in one or both eyes
• Sudden difficulty walking, dizziness, or loss of balance
• Sudden severe headache

These symptoms can occur when a blood vessel carrying oxygen and nutrients to the brain becomes blocked by a clot or ruptures. When this occurs, part of the brain cannot receive blood and oxygen, which can damage brain cells.

It is also important to note that several distinct types of stroke exist. A clot or blood flow blockage causes an ischemic stroke within an artery that leads to the brain, and a hemorrhagic stroke occurs when a blood vessel ruptures. There is also something called a TIA – transient ischemic attack. This “mini-stroke” can also be called a “warning stroke.” A temporary blood clot causes TIA, so the symptoms only last for a short period of time – most are less than five minutes. While a TIA does not result in permanent brain damage, it is a warning that an impending stroke could occur in the near future.

How Often Does Stroke Misdiagnosis Occur?

The unfortunate reality is that it can be relatively common for doctors to misdiagnose stroke. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the warning signs of potentially severe strokes are discounted or overlooked by doctors in tens of thousands of instances each year. This means that there are tens of thousands of patients suffering from disabling strokes who could have received preventative treatments.

Many stroke patients who went to the emergency room complaining of headaches or dizziness were either sent home or told they had a benign condition like an ear infection or migraine rather than a medical emergency. Additionally, patients under the age of 45, women, and minorities were all more likely to be misdiagnosed after suffering from a stroke. (While a stroke can happen to anyone, nearly three-quarters of stroke victims are over the age of 65.)

How Is A Stroke Diagnosed?

As a stroke survivor, you understand just how important it is to seek medical attention immediately after you experience a stroke or some of the warning signs. There are several steps that your physician should have followed during your diagnosis and examination.

1. Medical History. A doctor must collect a thorough medical history to have a complete picture of a patient’s health. This includes previous conditions, operations, illnesses in your family, current medications, etc. The doctor will also want to know about the symptoms you have experienced.

2. Physical Examination. After checking your vitals, a neurologic examination will then test the nerves and muscles to see if reflexes, coordination, strength, and/or sensation have been impacted. Questions will also be asked to examine thinking, speech, and memory – all factors that can be impacted by a stroke.

To correctly diagnose a stroke, a proper and complete examination is necessary. Maybe you went to a doctor complaining of a sudden headache or dizziness, and you were quickly just written a prescription and sent on your way without a full evaluation. Or maybe you took your mother to the emergency room because she was experiencing confusion, and she was simply diagnosed as experiencing the symptoms of dementia – only to later suffer from a debilitating stroke. 

If you experienced something similar, you likely did not receive the medical care you deserved.

What Should You Do When A Stroke Was Caused By Malpractice? 

If you feel like your doctor or other medical professionals didn’t do their jobs adequately, the first step is to seek a second opinion immediately. The last thing you want to do is have a TIA that is misdiagnosed, only to experience a larger stroke in the near future that could have been prevented.

You also have the option to pursue legal action. If a delayed or missed diagnosis led to severe injury for you or a loved one, you may have a case for medical malpractice. Contact one of Ross Feller Casey’s experienced medical malpractice lawyers to learn more about your legal options.

Why Choose Ross Feller Casey For Your Medical Malpractice Claim? 

Ross Feller Casey, among the nation’s preeminent medical malpractice law firms, is the recognized legal authority in stroke lawsuits. The firm has won a series of remarkable seven- and eight-figure recoveries on behalf of individual clients catastrophically injured as a result of a missed stroke diagnosis and the failure to treat their stroke or stroke symptoms.