The Legal Side: Dealing with Details

Abstract

Misdiagnosis of chest pain? No longer is the physician the only person held liable. Nurses may now share in allegations of negligence for the failure to diagnose or properly treat a heart attack. But what may appear at first blush to be a new liability can be traced right back to nursing basics. In Story v. St. Mary Parish Service District, the family of a 66year-old man sued a Louisiana hospital after a new graduate nurse failed to recognize an impending myocardial infarction.1 The family settled the wrongful death suit out of court for more than $200,000. The man, who had a history of high blood pressure, was admitted to the hospital by his treating physician for a diagnostic workup. He had been taking procarbazine (Dyazide) for his hypertension for five years, and this was noted on the intake nursing history. On admission, the man complained of abdominal distention and pain, plus nausea and vomiting. The family stated that two days later, on the day he died, the man had complained several times to the nurses and attendants about shortness of breath and severe pain in his elbows and chest. The nurse assigned to care for the man that evening had been employed by the hospital as a staff nurse for only one week; she had just taken