A hospital that wrongly diagnosed a man with heart disease as
suffering from indigestion has been told by watchdogs to review its
communication.
The 41-year-old man, who was not named in the report by the
Scottish Public Services Ombudsman, died two months after the
misdiagnosis at Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
He was admitted to the hospital with chest pains in January
2008, but released after being told he had indigestion.
An electrocardiogram (ECG) heart test performed while the man
was taken by ambulance to hospital could have pointed to the real
cause of his condition, but was not seen by a doctor.
It was only during a post mortem examination, after the man
collapsed while cycling and later died, that it was found he had
acute heart disease.
His mother complained about his treatment at the hospital, and
the family has since received an apology.
The ombudsman found that the hospital's miscommunication
contributed to the man's death. The report said: "It is clear that
there was a breakdown in communication, both verbally and in
passing the physical copy of the ambulance ECG to the doctor to be
reviewed."
The failure to take the ambulance ECG into account meant staff
"failed to pick up on the possibility that the chest pain Mr A
experienced was cardiac in nature".
The ombudsman recommended that NHS Lothian review its
communication methods between ambulance staff and doctors, remind
staff of the importance of ensuring ECGs are available for review
and to apologise to the dead man's family.