Heart Attack Cases - Don't Let that Golden Hour Pass

The “Golden Hour” is the first hour after the onset of a heart attack (myocardial infarction) and may very well be the most important hour of your life.  During this very critical time frame, the coronary arteries do not receive the blood flow necessary to sustain life.  If oxygen rich blood flow is not restored timely, then permanent damage or death may result.  Permanent damage is the result of heart tissue that dies due to a lack of oxygen.  Blockage (occlusion) of the coronary arteries may occur for different reasons, including plaque buildup (angina), blood clotting (thrombus), spasm, or failure of a stent (angioplasty) or bypass (CABG).  The left main coronary artery is the main artery that supplies blood to the left chamber of the heart, which does most of the work or pumping.  Regardless of the cause, it is essential for the treating physicians to make the correct choices from the treatment options and make those decisions timely.  Failure to make the correct choice or failure to make it timely can be the result of medical malpractice.  In addition to medication therapies, common treatment options are stenting and bypass surgery of the blocked arteries.  Whether you need a stent or a bypass surgery is a complicated medical decision that should be left to a qualified, knowledgeable, and experienced physician.  Your physician may be a cardiologist or a cardiac surgeon.  A cardiologist would normally be the physician who places a stent while the cardiac surgeon would normally perform a coronary artery bypass (CABG).  If you or a loved one has suffered a heart attack while under the care of a physician and the “Golden Hour” was allowed to pass, you may want to ask a medical malpractice lawyer questions about whether the treatment that you received was appropriate under the circumstances.  In a medical malpractice case in Florida, you will have to show that something was done that was medically inappropriate under the circumstances and, more likely than not, caused the outcome that you are left with.  A consultation with a Florida medical malpractice lawyer is generally free and completely confidential.