Subarachnoid hemorrhage is bleeding into the space surrounding the brain, most often caused by a ruptured cerebral aneurysm, and it is a neurological emergency with a high risk of death or severe disability. It is a recurring subject of missed-diagnosis litigation because the classic presentation, a sudden severe headache often described as the worst of the patient’s life, can be mistaken for a benign headache and discharged without imaging.
Allegations in these cases commonly concern failure to take an adequate history, failure to recognize the warning features that call for urgent CT imaging or lumbar puncture, and failure to diagnose a sentinel bleed before a later catastrophic rupture. The standard of care is a matter of expert evidence from emergency medicine, neurology, and neurosurgery, and causation turns on whether timely diagnosis and intervention would have prevented the devastating outcome that followed.
Posts tagged Subarachnoid Hemorrhage analyze Ontario and other Canadian decisions involving missed or delayed diagnosis of subarachnoid hemorrhage.
BC court dismisses ED malpractice claim involving missed subarachnoid hemorrhage where patient lacked thunderclap headache and the bleed had not yet occurred.
Most ER visits are for minor concerns. For the small number that are not, missing the diagnosis can be fatal. Five conditions that recur in malpractice cases.
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