Neglegence at least?

[Crystaltears]

Okay so here's what happened:

My mother took my dad to the ER about a month to a month and a half ago because he was very bad sick and was coughing and having trouble breathing. We thought he had bronchitis or pneumonia. They gave him some perscriptions for antibiotics, some cough medicine. And sent him home, saying he had 'walking pneumonia'.

The medicine helped with the coughing, the antibiotics seemed to ease the pneumonia a little but didn't get rid of it completely but we all figured that he would be able to heal the rest of the way on his own because he was doing a lot better with the coughing, but still having trouble breathing which we all chalked up to the pneumonia still not being completely healed yet. It usually takes time to fully clear up.

He got better for a while and then progressively worse again.

A week or two ago, I'm not sure on the exact date, within the last two weeks, my mom took my dad to the local emergency room because he was having severe trouble breathing.

It was late at night while he was trying to sleep that he was just having really really difficult times trying to breath, along with chest pain. So mom took him to the ER again.

They claimed to have done a CT or an MRI (I don't remember), never really explained anything. They perscribed some kind of medicine for him, then sent him home again.

The day before yesterday, he tried to lay down and go to sleep and my mom was in bed beside him and he was just wheezing and gasping for breath and just couldn't breathe.

My mom came and got me at 6 a.m. and instead of going back to the ER again, we made the 100 mile trip to the veteran's hospital in our capital city. They did a CT scan and an MRI I believe, as well as another test which basically took pictures of his heart.

They found out that his heart is dialated, he has a blood clot in his heart. 40% of his heart has stopped working. They said that in the last two months he's had a heart attack.

I'm not positive, but that sounds about right for the time period when we had him at the ER the time about a month ago when they sent him home again. He had trouble breathing, chest pains, and a history of heart problems.

I think my dad was having a heart attack and they sent him home. He has a blood clot, dialated heart, and loss of 40% of his heart... and they found it with the SAME tests that the ER used on him a week ago! The ER did nothing and now my dad may be dieing because of it. They don't know if they can save him. They don't know if they can get the lost part of his heart to function again. If they push the clot out, they're afraid it could get into his blood stream and kill him. If they don't get it out, it WILL kill him.

Do we have a case against the hospital? I don't know if it's malpractice but... twice they did nothing when my dad was seriously seriously sick. They could have done something. They should have found something. So... do we have a case?

My dad's only 50 years old. I'm only 24 and I may loose my dad because the ER didn't pay attention. They may not have caused the problem, but preventitive care should have been started months ago when we were first trying to get help for him.

I hope you can review the information here and let me know at least based on what I've been able to tell you if we can do this. I really don't care about getting money. I've got a 15 and 16 year old brother and sister and a mother who's been with this man since she was 16 years old who are going to be completely and totally lost if my dad dies because of carelessness.

I have to live knowing that the people that are going to have my life in their hands if my sister, my brother, my mother or I end up in a car wreck... don't care. That's what I care about. And I may loose the only dad I've got because these people just couldn't take the time out of their schedule to do the job they're paid to do.

Sorry for the ranting, really. This is just... it's my daddy.

It is certainly possible you have a case based on what you say here; you should take a brief description of these events as well as your medical records to a malpractice attorney and see if the attorney thinks you have a claim; often you need to contact several attorneys to find one to take the case; the review of your case and records is often free and then they will normally take the case on a contingency fee basis if they think you can win; you would pay only if they collect for you.