A quarter of a million Americans die every year because they are misdiagnosed in the emergency room by bungling doctors, a federal report suggests.
It found lives are being lost because medics do not know how to recognize some of the lesser-known symptoms of deadly complications like strokes and heart attacks.
For example, a stroke patient who goes to the hospital with dizziness has a 14-fold increased risk of being misdiagnosed compared to more common signs like numbness and speech problems.
Overall, the report estimated that 7.4 million Americans are mistakenly diagnosed during the 130 million yearly trips made to hospital ERs – the equivalent of around 6 percent. Roughly 370,000 patients suffer serious harm as a result.
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