Primary Care Provider Pays $750,000 for Failing to Address Complaints of Chest Pain

March 4, 2016 | Strategic Insights for Ambulatory Care

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​A Massachusetts primary care physician has agreed to a $750,000 settlement to resolve allegations of negligent failure to address a patient's repeated complaints of chest pain over a period of seven months before the patient died after having a heart attack, according to a report from the January 2016 Zarin's Medical Liability Alert (subscription required). The 68-year-old patient was a long-term patient of the defendant primary care physician and had a family history of cardiac disease and a personal medical history of atherosclerosis, which had been diagnosed by the defendant physician 11 years earlier and led to cardiac surgery and a stroke. The patient was at the beach when he saw a friend of his grandchild swim into a strong current. He went into the water attempting to save the child, who was pulled to safety by his wife. When she noticed that her husband remained unmoving in the water, the patient's wife brought him to a hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

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