Legal Question in Medical Malpractice in California

Hi. I went through an angiogram which because of the finding of a blockage led to an angioplasty with stent. A week and a half later I was feeling bad - mostly because of shortness of breath. My doctor said I needed to go to the ER and get checked out there at the hospital. It was their recommendation for me to undergo an angiogram (a 2nd one) asap to check if there's another blockage or see if the stent is working properly or not.

The cardiologist who performed my angiogram/angioplasty was on a 2 week vacation so another doctor had to do it this time around. Nothing wrong was found however my blood pressure dropped really low resulting in an overnight hospital stay for observation. They found out the culprit. It was my blood pressure medication that I continued to take --- as it was explicitly written in my 1st angioplasty discharge papers "continue to take Diovan"... I should not have been taking blood pressure medication anymore after the angioplasty-stent procedure.

It was only after returning home from the 2nd angiogram and after a couple of days later that I saw there was a message in the home answering machine. The message was from my cardiologist who performed the 1st angioplasty and the one who discharged me the 1st time around - the one who wrote the incorrect discharge instructions. He left a message the day I was discharged saying to "discontinue" the blood pressure pills... He must have realized his discharge instructions were wrong. But the message was not retrieved until after the fact.

Because of this miscommunication, I had to go through the 2nd angiogram - an invasive procedure of the heart, a stay in the hospital and off work for several days. My boss suggested I take the rest of the week off, recuperate and rest.

My question is this: Is this cause for negligence of the doctor (1) to have written incorrect discharge instructions AND (2) to have corrected his mistake by another mistake of leaving a vital, life threatening piece of information on an answering machine instead of making sure the correct information was communicated to the patient live and in person? There was no other phone call made for that correction purpose after that one message left on the machine. So it didn't seem that the doctor gave much importance to his message because, again, the message came too late.

I would appreciate your thoughts and advice on this matter. This doctor needs to be taught that his negligent, inattentive mistakes could have cost me my life.

Thank you in advance for your advice.

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