Doctors missed patient’s MI after attributing symptoms to exercise bike mishap: coroner
Sheila Quairney's death highlights the importance of fully assessing women with atypical symptoms, coroner Audrey Jamieson concluded.
Doctors missed an AMI diagnosis because they assumed a woman’s abdominal and ribcage pain was related to a fall onto her stationary bike handles, a coroner has found.
The case should be used as a reminder to doctors to undertake a comprehensive assessment and consider acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in female patients who present “atypically”, according to Victorian coronial findings.
Sheila Quairney, 68, had presented to Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital in April 2023 complaining of nausea and pain in her upper abdomen and left lower ribs.
She reported she had been riding her stationary bike the day before when she fell forward and hit her ribcage on the handles, resulting in sharp but non-debilitating pain.
