Sounds like he has a possibility of coronary artery disease. Since we can’t rule it out completely, you should go right to the ER and tell them your father needs a Chest CT Scan, MRI Angiogram, cardiac Catheterization, Dobutamine echo, and perhaps a $20,000 array of Blood tests to rule out exotic causes of his weakness. All “just in case”. I thought I’d save you some time because if you pursue your father’s weakness in the “CYA from attorney’s” world we fight every day, that’s what you’ll get.

The above paragraph in no way construes medical advice or information and in no way should be taken as such. If you have any real concerns they can only be evaluated in the presence of a licensed physician. I make no definitie conclusons in the above paragraph, and should not be held accountable should the statement be taken as advice. If you have further questions, please contact your personal physician or attorney.

An reason I am curious is that my 78-year old father who had an MI (very mild, he hadn’t learned about it until later) sometime between the ages of 50 and 59 and who used to be a competitive runner when he was young had always passed them with flying colors. Only recently did he start to even get tired during a stress test. When he did one at 68 and the treadmill was still at moderate speed, the doctor asked him: “How long can you walk like this?”. My father said “2 days”. When it was at max speed, they asked him “what about now?” He said – “about an hour”.

If your patient is a diabetic with hypertension ,high cholesterol and smokes a pack a day and complains of chest pain? Skip the stress and go straight for the cath.
Why bother screwing around? And the chance of perfing? That is a chance you have to take and by the way not every open heart patient becomes a disaster, the majority do just fine.
A cath can save someones life, a stress test is nothing but a crappy diagnostic tool.
I do not believe in suing doctors unless it can be demonstrated that they committed gross negligence..like taking off the wrong leg or being drunk/on drugs during a procedure.
Th majority of people in medicine do the best damn job they can with good intentions. Sometimes they make mistakes..because they aren’t robots thank God.

The current trend now is toward chlorexidine with 70% alcohol as prep solutions. There will be more fires as a result. Time will tell.

The law states that a doctor can only be sued if a “standard of care” is not met.

I’m sorry, but 6 cardiologists who disagree about a test is NOT a “standard” of care. A “standard” is set by a community of people. To break a “standard” requires a clear violation from accepted practice, not a mere disagreement among professionals.

Next time you hear that term “standard of care” used by lawyers, please proceed to laugh in their face. I dont care what hte law says, the bottom line is that these cases are decided on issues that has absolutely EVERYTHING to do with individual “expert” disagreements and NOTHING to do with “standard” of care issues.

The kind of logic used in this case would be similar to having a court case to decide if “less filling” or “tastes great” is better. Going either way has nothing to do with violating a standard and everything to do with individual preference.

Doctors should not be sued for individual preferences. Thats exactly what happened in this case.