The man was a smoker, so they disregarded his shortness of breath, and made him wait. He died.
The wife sued, and won. But no charges were filed.
OMG, that's horrible. Him being a smoker would make him an obvious candidate for an MI, I'd think.
A father of a friend of mine was on a trip with his wife when he started slurring his words and acting strangely. He was drunk -- which after 8 pm, was pretty much a given for him -- and once the doctors noted that, they looked no further, and told his wife to take him somewhere he could sleep it off. The wife tried to explain that she knew what he was like drunk, and this wasn't it, but to no avail.
They continued down the road, and by the time the wife pulled into another hospital, he was sinking into a coma. He died a week later. We'll never know if the stroke could have been treated if diagnosed at the first ER.