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Failure to Diagnose Pulmonary Embolism Medical Malpractice in Chicago
A pulmonary embolism (PE) is a blood clot that blocks one or more arteries in the lungs. It cuts off blood flow, starves the lungs of oxygen, and can kill within minutes or hours. When a doctor, emergency room physician, or hospital fails to diagnose a PE, that failure can cost a patient their life. If you or someone you love suffered serious harm because a medical provider missed this diagnosis in Chicago, you may have a medical malpractice claim. The attorneys at Briskman Briskman & Greenberg are Chicago personal injury lawyers who handle failure-to-diagnose cases and can review what happened to you at no cost. This page explains what a PE is, how doctors miss it, what Illinois law requires to bring a claim, and what you can recover.
Table of Contents
- Why Pulmonary Embolism Is So Deadly When Missed
- How Doctors Are Supposed to Diagnose a Pulmonary Embolism
- What You Must Prove in an Illinois Failure-to-Diagnose Malpractice Claim
- Illinois Laws That Govern Your PE Malpractice Case
- What Damages Can You Recover in a Chicago PE Malpractice Case
- FAQs About Failure to Diagnose Pulmonary Embolism Medical Malpractice in Chicago
Why Pulmonary Embolism Is So Deadly When Missed
A pulmonary embolism forms when a blood clot, usually originating in the deep veins of the legs or pelvis, breaks free and travels to the lungs. Once it lodges in a pulmonary artery, it blocks blood flow to the lung tissue and forces the right side of the heart to work against dangerous pressure. The result can be cardiac arrest, organ failure, or death, often within a very short window of time.
Untreated pulmonary embolism carries a mortality rate of roughly 30%, while proper medical treatment dramatically reduces that risk to approximately 8%. That gap between treated and untreated outcomes is exactly why a missed diagnosis is so catastrophic. The difference between life and death often comes down to whether a doctor ordered the right test at the right time.
Misdiagnosis of PE is common, occurring in approximately 30% of emergency department patients who are initially diagnosed with an alternative condition. Think about that for a moment. Nearly one in three PE patients who walk into an emergency room leaves with the wrong diagnosis. Doctors sometimes attribute PE symptoms to anxiety, a panic attack, pneumonia, or a pulled muscle, especially in younger patients without obvious risk factors.
Inpatients have a 50% risk of being misdiagnosed, and approximately 40% of intensive care unit patients are found on autopsy to have had a PE that was not diagnosed before death. These are not rare statistical outliers. They represent real patients at Chicago-area hospitals, including facilities near Michigan Avenue, the Loop, and the Near North Side, who went undiagnosed while their condition worsened.
Sudden death is the first symptom in about one-quarter of those who sustain a PE, and another 10% to 30% will die within 30 days of diagnosis. For those who survive an initial event but go undiagnosed, the risk of a second, fatal clot remains high. Early diagnosis and treatment is the only way to change that outcome.
How Doctors Are Supposed to Diagnose a Pulmonary Embolism
The standard of care for suspected PE is well-established. Physicians are trained to recognize the warning signs and follow a structured diagnostic process. When they skip steps or dismiss symptoms, patients pay the price.
Classic symptoms of a PE include sudden shortness of breath, chest pain that worsens with breathing, a rapid or irregular heartbeat, coughing up blood, and leg swelling or pain from an underlying deep vein thrombosis (DVT). Not every patient presents with all of these, but a combination of risk factors and even one or two symptoms should prompt a physician to consider PE in the differential diagnosis.
Physicians use validated clinical scoring tools to assess PE probability. The 2019 European Society of Cardiology guidelines recommend using the Geneva and Wells scores as diagnostic aids, and the Wells score is the most commonly used tool in clinical practice for calculating the probability of PE. A doctor who ignores an elevated Wells score, or who never calculates one at all, may be departing from the accepted standard of care.
Once clinical suspicion is raised, the next step is diagnostic testing. A D-dimer blood test is often used as an initial screen. A definitive diagnosis of PE is made via computed tomography pulmonary angiography (CTPA), which is interpreted by radiologists. Ordering a CTPA in a patient with moderate or high pre-test probability is standard. Skipping this test, or misreading the results, can be the act of negligence that forms the basis of a malpractice claim.
Common failures include not ordering a D-dimer test, dismissing elevated D-dimer results without further imaging, failing to recognize DVT as a precursor to PE, and discharging a patient from the emergency room without ruling out a clot. These errors happen in busy Chicago emergency rooms, during overnight hospital shifts, and in primary care offices along corridors like Western Avenue or in neighborhoods like Lincoln Park and Wicker Park.
What You Must Prove in an Illinois Failure-to-Diagnose Malpractice Claim
A failure-to-diagnose pulmonary embolism case is a medical malpractice claim under Illinois law. To win, you must establish four core elements: duty, breach, causation, and damages. Each element requires specific evidence, and none of them can be assumed.
Duty is the easiest element. When a doctor, nurse, or hospital takes on your care, they owe you a legal duty to treat you according to the accepted standard of care for their profession and specialty. That duty exists whether you were treated at a major academic medical center near the University of Illinois at Chicago or at a neighborhood urgent care clinic on the South Side.
Breach means the provider deviated from the standard of care. In a PE case, this could mean failing to order a D-dimer test, not following up on an abnormal result, discharging a patient with classic PE symptoms, or misreading a CTPA scan. The standard is not perfection. It is what a reasonably competent physician in the same specialty would have done under the same circumstances.
Causation connects the breach to your injury. You must show that the provider’s failure to diagnose the PE more likely than not caused or worsened your harm. If a doctor had ordered the right test and the PE had been caught and treated, would you have avoided a cardiac arrest, a brain injury, or death? That is the causation question.
Damages are the measurable losses you suffered: medical bills, lost wages, disability, pain and suffering, and in fatal cases, the losses suffered by surviving family members. A medical malpractice lawyer can help you document and calculate all categories of damages, including future care costs and lost earning capacity.
Illinois Laws That Govern Your PE Malpractice Case
Illinois has several specific statutes that directly affect how a failure-to-diagnose pulmonary embolism case is built, filed, and resolved. Knowing these laws helps you understand what your attorney must do and why acting quickly matters.
The filing deadline is set by the Illinois Code of Civil Procedure under 735 ILCS 5/13-212. Under 735 ILCS 5/13-212(a), an Illinois medical malpractice action must generally be brought within two years after the claimant knew, or through reasonable diligence should have known, of the injury or death. In most cases, there is also a four-year outside limit from the act or omission. This means the clock can start running before you even realize malpractice occurred.
Before you can file a lawsuit, Illinois law requires an additional step. Under 735 ILCS 5/2-622, Illinois law requires plaintiffs to attach a sworn affidavit and a written health professional’s report to their medical malpractice complaint. This procedural requirement, often called the “affidavit of merit,” serves as an early screening mechanism confirming that a qualified health professional has reviewed the facts and believes the claim has merit. Your attorney must identify and retain a qualified medical expert, secure your records, and prepare this documentation before filing.
On the question of damages, Illinois law under 735 ILCS 5/2-1115 prohibits punitive damages in medical malpractice cases. However, you can still recover economic damages (medical bills, lost wages, future care costs) and non-economic damages (pain and suffering, loss of normal life). There is no cap on these categories of damages for general personal injury and medical malpractice claims in Illinois.
When multiple defendants share fault, such as the emergency room physician, the radiologist who misread the scan, and the hospital itself, liability is governed by 735 ILCS 5/2-1117. Under that statute, all defendants found liable are jointly and severally liable for past and future medical expenses. A defendant whose share of fault is 25% or greater is also jointly and severally liable for all other damages, meaning you may be able to recover the full amount from any one of them.
If a missed PE diagnosis results in death, the family may bring a wrongful death action under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180. That Act allows the deceased person’s estate to pursue damages on behalf of surviving family members. A medical malpractice attorney can advise whether a wrongful death claim applies to your family’s situation and what damages may be available.
What Damages Can You Recover in a Chicago PE Malpractice Case
The damages available in a failure-to-diagnose pulmonary embolism case depend on the severity of the harm and the specific facts of your situation. Illinois law allows recovery for both economic and non-economic losses, and the amounts can be substantial when a PE goes undiagnosed and causes permanent injury or death.
Economic damages include all past and future medical costs directly tied to the missed diagnosis. If you suffered a cardiac arrest, required emergency surgery, spent time in an ICU, or need long-term rehabilitation, those costs are recoverable. Lost wages and reduced earning capacity are also economic damages. If your injuries prevent you from returning to work, or limit the type of work you can do, those future losses are part of your claim.
Non-economic damages cover pain and suffering, emotional distress, loss of normal life, and loss of consortium for a spouse or partner. These damages are real and significant, even though they do not come with a price tag attached. Illinois courts allow juries to assign reasonable dollar values to these losses based on the evidence presented at trial.
In wrongful death cases, surviving family members can recover for grief, loss of companionship, loss of financial support, and funeral expenses under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act. These cases are especially common in PE failures because the condition can kill quickly, and families are left without warning.
Attorney fees in Illinois medical malpractice cases are governed by 735 ILCS 5/2-1114, which limits contingent fees for plaintiff’s attorneys to no more than 33 1/3% of all sums recovered. At Briskman Briskman & Greenberg, we handle medical malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis, meaning you pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you. You may still be responsible for certain case costs and expenses, and we will explain that clearly before you make any decisions. To discuss your case, contact our office at (312) 222-0010 or visit us at 205 W. Randolph St., Suite 925, Chicago, IL 60606.
If you are also exploring whether a failure to order the right tests contributed to your harm, that type of negligence connects directly to broader patterns of diagnostic negligence. A medical malpractice lawyer can review whether the standard of care required additional testing and whether that failure caused your injury. Similarly, if a hospital’s nursing staff failed to recognize signs of deterioration and escalate care, that is a separate but related form of negligence that may support your claim.
Cases involving missed blood clots, undiagnosed sepsis, or delayed treatment of other life-threatening conditions share similar legal frameworks. If your loved one was in an ICU and a PE was found only at autopsy, that scenario raises serious questions about critical care monitoring standards and whether the care team met their obligations under Illinois law. A medical malpractice attorney with experience in hospital negligence can evaluate those facts and advise you on your options. If you believe a primary care physician, internal medicine doctor, or specialist failed to connect the dots between your symptoms and a PE, a medical malpractice lawyer can help determine whether a referral or specialist consultation should have been made and whether that failure contributed to your harm.
FAQs About Failure to Diagnose Pulmonary Embolism Medical Malpractice in Chicago
How do I know if my doctor committed malpractice by missing my pulmonary embolism?
Not every missed diagnosis is malpractice. The question is whether your doctor deviated from the accepted standard of care. If you presented with classic PE symptoms or known risk factors, and your doctor failed to order a D-dimer test, skipped a CTPA scan, or discharged you without ruling out a clot, that conduct may fall below the standard. A qualified medical expert must review your records and confirm that deviation before a lawsuit can be filed under 735 ILCS 5/2-622. The attorneys at Briskman Briskman & Greenberg can connect you with the right experts and evaluate your case at no cost to you.
What is the deadline to file a pulmonary embolism malpractice lawsuit in Illinois?
Under 735 ILCS 5/13-212, you generally have two years from the date you knew or reasonably should have known that a medical provider’s negligence caused your injury. There is also a four-year statute of repose, meaning no claim can be filed more than four years after the negligent act, even if you discovered the harm later. In wrongful death cases, the two-year clock typically starts from the date of death under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180. These deadlines are strict, and missing them can permanently bar your claim. Contact Briskman Briskman & Greenberg at (312) 222-0010 as soon as possible to protect your rights.
Can I sue the hospital as well as the doctor who missed my PE diagnosis?
Yes. Hospitals can be held liable for the negligence of their employed physicians, nurses, and other staff under a legal theory called respondeat superior. Even when a doctor is an independent contractor, a hospital may still face liability if it failed to properly credential, supervise, or train that provider. Under 735 ILCS 5/2-1117, when multiple defendants share fault, all are jointly and severally liable for your past and future medical expenses. This means you have options for recovering full compensation even when fault is spread across multiple parties.
What if my family member died from an undiagnosed pulmonary embolism? Can we still file a claim?
Yes. When a missed PE diagnosis results in death, surviving family members can bring a wrongful death action under the Illinois Wrongful Death Act, 740 ILCS 180. This Act allows the personal representative of the deceased’s estate to pursue damages on behalf of the surviving spouse, children, or parents. Recoverable losses include grief, loss of companionship, loss of financial support, and funeral expenses. The claim must generally be filed within two years of the date of death. The team at Briskman Briskman & Greenberg handles wrongful death cases arising from medical negligence and can guide your family through every step of the process.
How much does it cost to hire Briskman Briskman & Greenberg for a PE malpractice case?
Briskman Briskman & Greenberg handles medical malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis. You pay no attorney fees unless we recover compensation for you. Under 735 ILCS 5/2-1114, contingent fees in Illinois medical malpractice cases are capped at 33 1/3% of all sums recovered. You may still be responsible for certain litigation costs and expenses separate from attorney fees, and we will explain all of that clearly before you commit to anything. Your initial consultation is free. Call us at (312) 222-0010 or visit our office at 205 W. Randolph St., Suite 925, Chicago, IL 60606 to get started.
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