In an unusual move against a hospital who allegedly failed to treat a patient, the plaintiff has filed a 10-count lawsuit alleging the lack of treatment put him in danger. The lawsuit is not a medical malpractice lawsuit, but brings in a federal statute called the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act. Robert Olszewski is at the center of the federal suit and claims that he went to the Mayo Regional Hospital emergency room in Maine twice within 17 hours for chest pain, headache and fever and was not given an appropriate medical screening. After the second visit and decline of a proper medical screening he went to another hospital where they found he had suffered from a mild heart attack. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act was initially passed as an anti-dumping statute since hospitals at the time were turning people away who didn’t have insurance or money. Since the act was passed, when someone goes to the emergency room, the hospital must do an appropriate medical screening to determine whether the person is in an emergency condition and if so, the patient cannot be transferred until stabilized. Attorney Michael J. Waxman of Portland, who is representing Olszewski said, “We can fit this into the contours of that statute because he really wasn’t given an appropriate medical screening, certainly not the second time, maybe not even the first time he visited Mayo. He wasn’t given any screening, as a matter of fact,” Waxman said. When experiencing chest pain, the first reaction should be a medical screening to determine whether a heart attack is responsible.