The symptoms were there: Sudden shortness of breath. Sharp chest pain. A heart racing for no apparent reason. A doctor ran some tests, offered a reassuring explanation, and sent the patient home. Hours or days later, that patient collapsed. The culprit was a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in the lungs that had been present all along.
Families left to make sense of that kind of loss deserve honest answers. At Meyers, Rodbell & Rosenbaum, our DMV medical malpractice lawyers work with medical and legal professionals to determine whether a missed PE diagnosis fell below the standard of care and if that failure gives rise to a malpractice claim.
What Is a Pulmonary Embolism and Why Is It So Dangerous?![X-ray Showing the Chest and Lungs]()
A pulmonary embolism (PE) occurs when a blood clot, often from the legs, travels through the bloodstream and blocks a lung artery. Depending on the clot's size and location, the consequences range from permanent lung damage to fatal cardiac collapse.
PE is the third most common cause of cardiovascular death in the United States, yet it is treatable when caught in time. The difference between a manageable outcome and a fatal one often comes down to the speed of diagnosis.
Why PE Gets Mistaken for Something Else
Pulmonary embolism symptoms overlap with a long list of more common conditions, including panic attacks. The difference is that those conditions rarely kill a patient who is misdiagnosed and sent home without treatment, while PE can.
Certain patients carry risk factors that increase the chances of clot formation, such as recent surgery or a family history of blood clots. When those risk factors appear alongside the classic symptom triad—shortness of breath, chest pain, and rapid heart rate—medicine has well-established tools to assess the threat before dismissing it.
What the Standard of Care Requires
When a patient presents to the emergency department with symptoms that could indicate a pulmonary embolism, physicians must follow a systematic approach before ruling it out. That process starts with risk stratification: evaluating the patient's symptoms, medical history, and known risk factors to determine the likelihood of a clot.
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Wells Score. The Wells Score assigns points based on symptoms, risk factors, and the likelihood of an alternative diagnosis. It places the patient in a low, moderate, or high-probability category and determines next steps.
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D-dimer blood test. For low-to-moderate-risk patients, a D-dimer blood test is highly sensitive for clotting activity. A negative result in a low-risk patient generally allows the physician to move on, while an elevated result requires imaging.
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Advanced imaging. CT pulmonary angiography (CTPA) is the gold standard for confirming or excluding a PE. When CTPA is not an option, a ventilation-perfusion scan provides an alternative for assessing lung blood flow and ventilation.
When a physician fails to assess the risks, skips the diagnostic workup, or attributes symptoms to a less serious cause without ruling out PE, it becomes the basis of a malpractice investigation.
The Gap Between a Missed Diagnosis and a Malpractice Claim
Not every misdiagnosis is medical malpractice. Medicine involves judgment, and even careful clinicians can encounter genuinely ambiguous presentations. A malpractice claim for missed PE generally requires establishing four elements:
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Duty. A physician-patient relationship existed, meaning the doctor was responsible for the patient's care.
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Breach. The physician's conduct fell below the standard of care that a reasonably competent provider would have met under the same circumstances.
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Causation. That failure directly caused the patient's harm, not an underlying condition or unavoidable complication.
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Damages. The patient suffered measurable losses as a result, whether physical, financial, or both.
How Malpractice Claims Work in Maryland, Virginia, and DC
Medical malpractice claims in the DMV region each come with their own procedural requirements. Understanding the rules that apply to a specific case is essential before taking any legal steps:
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Maryland. Claims must be supported by a certificate from a qualified medical expert under Maryland law. The statute of limitations is generally five years from the date of injury or three years from discovery, whichever comes first.
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Virginia. Under Virginia law, claimants have two years to file and must provide expert certification supporting the claim.
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Washington, DC. Under DC law, the filing deadline is three years from the date of injury, and expert support is also required.
Missing a filing deadline typically ends the case entirely. When a missed PE diagnosis is suspected, speaking with an attorney as early as possible protects the ability to pursue a claim.
What Compensation May Cover
A successful malpractice claim can pursue two categories of damages:
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Economic damages. These cover measurable financial losses, including past and future medical expenses, lost income, and the ongoing costs of managing any long-term health consequences.
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Non-economic damages. These address pain and suffering, emotional distress, and, in wrongful death cases, the losses sustained by surviving family members. Maryland, Virginia, and DC each cap non-economic damages in medical malpractice cases, with the limits varying by jurisdiction and adjusting periodically.
Taking the Next Step After a Devastating Diagnosis Failure
Medical records form the foundation of any missed PE case. The patient's presentation, the physician's notes, lab results, and imaging studies demonstrate what happened and when. Preserving those records early protects the ability to pursue a claim before evidence becomes harder to obtain.
The DMV medical malpractice lawyers at Meyers, Rodbell & Rosenbaum have spent decades handling serious medical malpractice cases. Families dealing with the consequences of a missed pulmonary embolism diagnosis deserve honest answers about their legal options.