Dr. FP is a family practitioner with a busy practice that includes urgent care patients. Mr. E, a 45-year-old executive, saw Dr. FP many times over the years for routine medical needs. Despite Dr. FP’s suggestion early on that Mr. E schedule a full physical exam, Mr. E chose instead to continue to visit Dr. FP on an urgent care basis for such complaints as sinusitis and upper respiratory infections…medscape, Malpractice Case: When ‘Normal’ Test Results Get You Into Trouble, Gordon T. Ownby, 2020
A month after a visit for allergic sinusitis, Mr. E presented with complaints of tightness in his chest and a burning sensation in the anterior chest for about 2 days. Mr. E said the pain came and went, at times felt like indigestion, and diminished with relaxation. He told Dr. FP that he worried that he might have a heart problem.
A chest x-ray was normal and Dr. FP read Mr. E’s EKG to be “100 percent normal.” Further evaluation revealed that Mr. E had engaged in vigorous gardening and that his anterior chest wall was very tender to compression.
