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Sent Home With Heartburn But Died of a Tear?
You told them it felt like something was ripping inside your chest.
The ER doctor dismissed your agony as acid reflux or anxiety. He handed you a prescription for antacids while a tearing aorta silently widened with every heartbeat. You trusted the white coat and the hospital badge but that trust was betrayed by a failure to listen. Now you are planning a funeral because they rushed a life and death decision.
They call it a difficult diagnosis but we call it a failure of curiosity.
We serve families in Miami Dade, Broward, and throughout Florida who have lost loved ones to this specific medical failure. In Florida malpractice is about a deviation from the professional standard of care. If a hospital ignored the red flags of an aortic dissection to save time or money then they are liable for the devastation they caused.
The Medical Standard of Care You Were Denied
Generalist lawyers often accept the defense that aortic dissection is the Great Masquerader and hard to spot. We do not. We know the specific diagnostic rules that a reasonably prudent physician must follow. This aligns with Code Aorta protocols designed to save lives in minutes.
1. The Tearing Pain Red Flag Defense attorneys argue that chest pain is common so the doctor could not have known. This is a deflection. Current medical literature establishes that a specific complaint of tearing or ripping pain is a major warning sign. If your loved one used these words and the doctor treated it as heartburn then they ignored a critical signal.
2. The Screen: Aortic Dissection Detection Risk Score The standard of care often involves using the ADD RS Risk Score. This is a simple medical checklist. If a patient has high risk features like abrupt tearing pain or a family history of aortic disease the score mandates aggressive testing.
The Negligence If your doctor failed to calculate this score and sent you home with a benign diagnosis like muscle strain then they gambled with your life.
3. The Pulse Deficit Failure A simple physical exam can detect a blockage. If the blood pressure in the right arm was significantly different from the left arm it is a massive red flag.
The Failure Doctors often skip this simple non invasive check because they are rushing. If your medical record shows they only checked one arm or ignored a blood pressure difference of more than 20 mmHg then they missed the most objective clue available¹.
4. The Gold Standard: CT Angiogram A chest X Ray or D Dimer blood test is not definitive.
The only sure way to rule out a dissection is a CT Angiogram or CTA.
If your doctor refused a CTA and relied on a normal EKG to send you home then they may have breached the standard of care.
Florida Law And Institutional Liability
Modern litigation targets not just the doctor but the system. We investigate whether the hospital failed to implement Code Aorta protocols or transfer agreements like RACE AD that could have sped up life saving surgery.
The Reasonable Physician Standard Under Florida Statute 766.102 we must prove that a reasonably prudent physician would have ordered the CTA given the symptoms. We hire board certified cardiothoracic experts to testify exactly where the system failed you.
The Pre Suit Requirement Florida law requires a mandatory Pre Suit Investigation phase. Before we file a lawsuit we must obtain a verified written medical expert opinion corroborating that malpractice occurred.
The Strict 2 Year Deadline Florida has a notoriously short Statute of Limitations for medical malpractice. It is generally two years from the time you knew or should have known the death or injury was caused by negligence.
Warning If you wait for an internal hospital review before calling a lawyer you may lose your right to sue forever.
The Window of Opportunity And Proving Causation
The hospital will try to claim the death or injury was inevitable. We use forensic medicine to dismantle that lie.
Aortic dissection is highly treatable if caught early. We focus on the Golden Hour.
The Timeline Did the patient present with pain hours before the rupture?
The Delay Did the failure to order a CTA waste the window for surgery?
The Causation Our experts testify that had the diagnosis been made upon arrival then timely surgical intervention often offers a substantially higher probability of survival or a markedly improved outcome according to cardiothoracic experts.
Securing Your Financial Future
A verdict cannot bring them back but it can secure the future they worked for.
We work with economists to calculate the full value of the loss which has reached verdicts of $29 million in similar cases of missed aortic dissection².
Loss of Parental Guidance Compensation for children who must grow up without the advice and love of a parent.
24 Hour Care for Survivors If the dissection caused a stroke or paralysis we secure funds for skilled nursing and home modifications. Survivors often require Life Care Plans exceeding $10 million³ to cover ventilator support and daily care.
Conscious Pain and Suffering Compensation for the terror and agony experienced by the victim due to the delay in treatment.
Frequently Asked Questions FAQ
Can I sue if the doctor said it was a heart attack? Yes. Misdiagnosing an aortic dissection as a heart attack is a common and fatal error. Treatments for heart attacks like blood thinners can actually kill a dissection patient by causing them to bleed out. This implies a failure to rule out aortic dissection before administering dangerous drugs which can create liability.
What if they said it was anxiety or a panic attack? This is a form of medical gaslighting. Dangerous conditions must be ruled out before benign diagnoses like anxiety are made. If the doctor dismissed tearing pain as anxiety without a CTA scan they failed their duty.
What if the pain moved to the back? Migrating pain is a recognized warning sign in many aortic dissection cases especially when it moves from chest to back or abdomen. If the medical staff documented this but sent the patient home anyway it is a case of chest pain red flags ignored by the care team.
Do Not Wait because Time is the Enemy of Your Case
We are not a high volume settlement mill. We are litigators who understand the medicine of vascular emergencies. We accept cases on a contingency basis so you pay nothing unless we win.
References
- von Kodolitsch Y, et al. Clinical prediction of acute aortic dissection. Arch Intern Med. 2000.
- Lubin & Meyer. $29 Million Verdict: Wrongful Death Undiagnosed Aortic Dissection.
- Life Care Planning estimates for high level spinal cord injury and stroke.
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Who created this content: This page was written by Jorge L. Flores, P.A., Florida Bar Member 53244, and was reviewed by our legal team for accuracy and compliance with current Florida law. AV Preeminent® rating since 2015.
How this page was prepared: The content was developed based on 30+ years of medical malpractice case experience in Miami-Dade County, a review of current Florida statutes, and adherence to Florida Bar advertising guidelines. Medical standards referenced were verified with board certified physicians.
Why this page exists: To provide Florida residents with accurate, accessible information about their legal rights after medical negligence, and to explain the malpractice claims process in clear, understandable terms.
Last reviewed: 12 / 9 / 2025
Disclaimer: Past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. The information on this page is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Each case is unique and must be evaluated on its own merits.
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