… A 60-year-old maintenance supervisor in a steel mill was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rate. He had an echocardiogram, which uses sound waves to produce images of the heart. The images should have alerted his doctors to a more serious problem. A cardiac catheterization and biopsy would have diagnosed his underlying problem: cardiac amyloidosis. By the time the diagnosis was made, it was too late for possibly life-saving treatment. The man died, survived by his widow and adult children. The case settled after a lawsuit was filed and discovery completed.
