You can always file a suit, yes. Whether you will be sucessful or not remains to be seen. If your mom was previously diagnosed with high blood pressure and high cholesterol- was she having that treated? Was she doing anything to control them? I don t know what happened in the office when she saw the doctor- so I don t know what she may have told him. As a rule, doctors take a complaint of chest pain pretty seriously, and they don t ignore it. But you don t die suddenly of high blood pressure, high cholesterol or arteriosclerosis- that s the result of years of damage. There s no proving that anything the doctor could have done or did, or didn t do- that would have changed the outcome. I m sorry you lost your mother, and you are right- 48 is too young. Unfortunately, you need to ask a lot more questions before you will know if anything could have been done or should have been done. It s a good idea to start asking, but just don t be too disappointed if the answer is that nothing could have changed it. However, you should also ask if this could have been a family tendency that you and your other family members should be looking out for. Otherwise, your mother may not be the last one lost too young to heart disease. You can t save her, but you may still be able to save others in the family from this. So ask, by all means.