Cardiomyopathy is a heart muscle disease. A defect causes the heart muscle to become weakened, swollen, or lopsided, making it difficult for the heart to pump blood. Cardiomyopathy affects infants eight times more than any other demographic. Cardiomyopathy, like myocarditis, can lead to congestive heart failure, which is caused by fluid buildup in the heart, lungs, or other organs.
Pediatric cardiology is a special type of pediatric medicine. In general, pediatric care has very few medical errors; however, more complicated, life-threatening diseases have twice the number of medical errors as other medical complications. As children’s systems are still developing and they are generally small in size, it is difficult to predict how their systems will react to complex and invasive medical testing and treatments. Furthermore, children are frequently unable to articulate their symptoms in a detailed and understandable manner. Pediatric cardiology is a very unique condition to treat, resulting in unusual conditions that can lead to errors. Because few children suffer from cardiac problems, the overall possibility of error is low, but it does occur. However, since there are fewer patients, errors are more common in this area. As a result of less experience in treating these diseases, fewer protocols, fewer established diagnostic methods, and a lack of equipment to treat these diseases, medical errors are on the rise.
Other factors that contribute to medical errors in pediatric cardiology patients include a general lack of awareness of these problems, which frequently results in physicians failing to diagnose or consider cardiac conditions, the frailty of critically ill patients, and the fact that symptoms of heart disease can also correlate with a wide range of other possible conditions. For these reasons, pediatricians frequently test other options before considering a cardiac condition. This significantly delays diagnosis and treatment, potentially causing the child to suffer greatly or even die. If your child was harmed as a result of medical malpractice involving heart failure, you should consult with a medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible. Our highly experienced medical malpractice attorneys at DeFrancisco & Falgiatano may be able to assist you in obtaining the compensation you deserve. We serve clients throughout Upstate New York and have offices in several convenient locations. Our extensive experience in the field of medical malpractice is reflected in the results we have obtained for our clients.