A stroke is a dangerous neurological event that can lead to death or lifetime impairment caused by damage to the brain. Medical experts often say that time wasted is brain lost after a stroke. The quicker someone receives adequate medical attention, the more likely they are to fully recover.
When someone believes they have experienced a neurological event or when they lose consciousness and coworkers or family members must seek emergency medical care on their behalf, a quick diagnosis is crucial to the best possible prognosis. Unfortunately, when you arrived at the emergency room, the professionals there might turn you away because they don’t fully understand the situation.
What are two reasons that medical professionals make emergency room mistakes involving someone who has just had a stroke?
They don’t believe self-reported symptoms
The early signs of a stroke may be largely internal and therefore seem subjective to medical professionals evaluating someone. Especially when someone has a history of overreacting to symptoms, doctors may ignore their claims without evidence.
If someone doesn’t have a pronounced droopy eye or slurred speech, for example, medical professionals will likely rely primarily on their explanation of their symptoms to determine their needs. Doctors don’t always properly listen to patients reporting their symptoms or may not believe them. If doctors fail to take symptoms seriously, they may turn someone away without proper testing or treatment.
They don’t understand the female symptoms
Women who have experienced a stroke will often present non-traditional symptoms. The female symptoms of a stroke are often vague compared with male symptoms. The way that medical schools educate physicians unfortunately means that there is more of a focus on traditional male symptoms than on the broader and more interpretive female symptoms associated with a stroke.
If the professionals evaluating someone’s claims in an emergency room don’t know the different ways that strokes present in female patients, they could turn someone away instead of ordering the proper care. In both scenarios, a preventable mistake by medical professionals may result in a significantly worse outcome for the patient.
Realizing that you may have experienced medical malpractice related to an undiagnosed stroke could help you get compensation and may lead to a change in practices at the facility that turn you away.