Patient Perspectives on Heart Attack Treatment

Different standards of treatment
Heart attack treatment isn't so rosy for some groups. Stephen Kopecky, MD, a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., has pointed out that there are gaping racial disparities in care for heart patients who are African American, according to 68 out of 81 studies on race and cardiac care. Even wealthier people of color may receive less aggressive care.

"African Americans are less likely than whites to receive catheterization, angioplasty, surgery, and thrombolytic therapy," Dr. Kopecky told a gathering of the American College of Cardiology in 2005, adding that this pattern "tugs at all our ethical standards."

Have your attack during the week
And pity the person who suffers a heart attack on Saturday or Sunday. They're less likely to survive, mainly because weekend admission is associated with lower use of invasive—and lifesaving—procedures.

That's not news to malpractice attorney Leon Aussprung, a former physician who has handled scores of cases where patients have died of heart attack or suffered brain injuries because they didn't get proper care in the emergency room. "The standard of care for treating a heart attack is well established, but it is not always followed," he says. Aussprung cites a 45-year-old woman who went to the hospital complaining of chest pains and died while waiting for treatment, possibly because she was not a traditional older male heart patient.

"Once you're at the hospital, it matters if anyone cares if you die," says Dr. Kopecky. "There was a study that asked heart disease patients, 'Does anybody care if you're alive?' If they said no, their chances of dying went up fivefold."