Emergency rooms are built for one job: recognize the dangerous condition before it kills. “Busy” is not a defense — ER standards of care already account for the chaos. When a Delaware ER sends home a heart attack labeled indigestion, a stroke labeled vertigo, or a septic patient labeled flu, the discharge paperwork becomes the first exhibit.
ER Error Claims: Key Facts
- The killers ERs must rule out: Heart attack, stroke, pulmonary embolism, aortic dissection, sepsis, appendicitis, and internal bleeding – each has workup standards triggered by presenting symptoms.
- Premature discharge: Sending a patient home without ruling out the dangerous diagnosis their symptoms required is the most common actionable ER failure.
- Triage and delay: Hours in a waiting room with time-critical symptoms can itself breach the standard of care.
- Delaware rules: Affidavit of merit (18 Del. C. § 6853); generally 2 years to file (18 Del. C. § 6856); no compensatory cap.
Who Answers for an ER Error
Potential defendants include the emergency physician (often employed by a staffing company, not the hospital), nurses, radiologists reading ER imaging, and the hospital itself for triage systems and protocols. Identifying the right entities early matters – staffing-company structures are designed to complicate exactly this.
We handle ER cases arising from hospitals throughout Delaware – Wilmington, Newark, Dover, Milford, Seaford, and Lewes. Related: Medical Malpractice, Stroke & Heart Attack Misdiagnosis, Hospital Negligence.
ER Error FAQs
The ER ran tests and still missed it. Is that malpractice?
Possibly – ordering tests is not the same as interpreting them correctly or ordering the right ones. Missed EKG findings and misread CTs are recurring ER case patterns.
I was discharged and came back worse the next day. Does the return visit help my case?
Often significantly – the second visit documents what the first should have found, with a timestamp on the cost of the delay.
Can I sue if the waiting room delay caused the harm?
Triage misclassification and monitoring failures during waits are actionable when they cause injury – these cases turn on triage records and ER logs.
Sent home by an ER that missed it? Call (302) 297-7775 for a free case review.