Man sues Hawaii over claims missile alert caused his heart attack

A man is suing the state of Hawaii claiming that a false ballistic missile alert issued earlier this year triggered a heart attack.

In January, a state worker sent an emergency alert to residents of Hawaii via cellphone message, telling them that there was a missile threat.

The 13 January alert stated that residents should take cover and “this is not a drill.” The employee who sent the alert said that he believed the missile threat was real, and was afterwards fired.

It took 38 minutes for the state to send another message, telling residents that the alert was in error.

After receiving the initial, false alert, Hawaii man James Sean Shields and his partner drove to the beach and called their loved ones. At the beach, Mr Shields felt a pain in his chest, which turned out to be a heart attack, the lawsuit reads.

The couple went to a medical centre where Mr Shields suffered cardiac arrest, then had to receive life-saving CPR, defibrillation, and surgery. Mr Shields and his girlfriend, both plaintiffs in the case, said that they never saw the correction message while dealing with the medical emergency.

The false message “was a substantial contributing factor in causing the heart attack and cardiac arrest," San Francisco School of Medicine cardiologist John MacGregor claims in the lawsuit.

The suit names the state of Hawaii, 10 anonymous people, 10 anonymous entities, and Vern T. Miyagi, who was the administrator of the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency at the time. After the incident, Mr Miyagi retired.

State attorney general spokesman Krishna Jayaram said his office will review the complaint carefully and respond in due course. Miyagi declined to comment.

Investigations into the false alarm blamed human error and insufficient safeguards against possible mistakes.