Local Law Blogs

2/3 of pulmonary embolism cases are misdiagnosed. Over 600,000 cases of pulmonary embolism occur every year and only 1/3 are ever diagnosed correctly.    If you go to an emergency room and they miss the diagnosis and send you home the chances of dying increase because there is a chance an emboli will recur.

Symptoms:

• Shortness of breath (dyspnea)
• Chest pain
• some sort of shock (sometimes low blood pressure)
  
• syncope (fainting)

Diagnostic tests used to find Pulmonary Embolism:

• Chest x-ray
• Sometimes you will see the doctors rule out a DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis),
• Blood gases to check for oxygen levels