61-year-old dies after heart attack missed for hours at Warsaw hospital; doctor at centre of separate scandal admitted her

Timeline of events

On 14 May 2026, shortly after 9:00, 61-year-old Grażyna felt severe chest pain, shortness of breath, and hot flashes at a bus stop next to the Mazowiecki Szpital Bródnowski in Warsaw. A passer-by measured her blood pressure at 220/147. Her cousin called an ambulance, which arrived within minutes and recorded a pressure of 188/123. At 10:30 the ambulance brought her to the hospital’s emergency department, just 200 metres away. She was admitted at 10:50 and assigned a yellow triage code, the third of five urgency levels, indicating a need for prompt but not immediate life-saving intervention.

Missed diagnosis

An ECG performed at 11:10 showed abnormalities consistent with a heart attack, according to a cardiologist consulted by the portal Zero.pl. The first troponin measurement came back at 94.6, far above the normal threshold of 16. Despite these results, the admitting doctor, Dawid Kacprzyk, assessed her condition as good. He ordered paracetamol, a non-contrast chest CT, and a repeat ECG. At 12:10 he noted in the medical record that the patient had been handed over to the observation room. Two other doctors also saw her during this period. For roughly five hours, the only treatment Grażyna received was paracetamol; a consulted physician later described the CT as medically irrelevant in this clinical situation. A second troponin test later returned a level of 2,204, and an ECG after 14:00 showed a “gigantic” heart attack. Only around 15:00, four hours after admission, did staff signal an intention to transfer her to the intensive cardiology care unit. By the time she arrived, she was unconscious. Resuscitation failed, and she was pronounced dead at 16:50. An autopsy confirmed a full-thickness myocardial infarction with rupture. The hospital’s own cardiologist wrote in the death certificate that the heart attack had begun around 10:00, before Grażyna even entered the emergency department.

Legal and political context

The family reported the case to the prosecutor’s office, naming Dawid Kacprzyk directly. The 29-year-old doctor is already at the centre of a separate scandal at Szpital Południowy, and he previously served as an activist for the Civic Coalition (Koalicja Obywatelska). The prosecutor’s office is now examining the circumstances of Grażyna’s death.

Lawyer’s response

Kacprzyk’s defence attorney, Jacek Dubois, told Fakt that his client acted appropriately.

The patient was immediately ordered tests upon admission.

The statement does not address why the troponin and ECG findings did not trigger an urgent cardiology referral. An emergency medicine expert quoted by Zero.pl called the failure to send the patient to cardiology with a troponin of 94.6 “inexplicable.”