How could a heart murmur in a 22 year old go undetected.?

I recently had a 22 year old cousin die. We were told after she died that her heart had a deformity. She had been to many doctors in the past several months with different issues. She had blood in her urine chest pains and no energy. She was told she had a urinary tract infection and heart burn. A gynocologist finally figured out she had a heart murmur. By then it was too late. Her body was shuting down. How could all of these doctors missed the heart murmur?

Hello D.B.
My heart goes out to you and I am sooooooo impressed by the number of hearts that you have touched in expressing your loss. It is evident that you cared about you cousin so much and I am sure that there are many more too. I guess that we are always trying to seek answers to justify tragedies and to deal with the eventuality that we are all mortal and may be a heart beat away from our own demise : This challenges us all to live life in a fashion that we can say that we have done our best for ourselves, those that are close to us , and hopefully, all mankind.
Our bodies are very wondrous and fragile things, many far from perfect. A large number of people have heart murmurs and live long lives without any or varied minor problems without causing death. I am not minimizing the influence of your cousins murmur and a "heart deformity" have very broad implications and without more specific information, little conclusion can be drawn. There are many good and valid suggestions here but it is inescapable that the murmur may not have been there until late in the course of your cousins illness: Physicians and many nurses are very capable of appreciating murmurs by simple auscultation (listening to the heart) They are not detected on routine electrocardiogram nor MRI.:Echocardiograms are highly diagnostic.
I can imagine that every effort was attempted to "ressucitate" your cousin and this can cause traumatic injury , as well.
Forgive me if it sounds as though I am making excuses.....Just trying to represent some possibilities.
As a nurse,(don't work in a hospital) I feel/want to express that no tradgedy goes unfelt by those in the health care professions: The vast majority of providers are some of the most caring and concerned people on earth and many work long hours at the cost of compromising their / and their families personal lives. As well, there are a number of mechanisms within health care institutions that investigate unexplained deaths and evaluate their institutions effectiveness in providing appropriate, ethical, and compassionate services( a Federal Mandate). They are evaluatedby State, Federal, and Private (Joint Commission On Acreddiation Of Hospitals) agencies.
I have no doubt, what so ever that someone who represents the Hospital would be glad to sit down with you and your family and review your cousins case : If you are still unsatisfied, there remains the option of civil recourse in the Courts or filing a complaint with any of the preceding agencies or the State Medical Board of Examiners.
Maybe there is more that can be learned about your loss and this might benefit someone in the future.
The most valuable obsevation that I see here is that there are so many caring people in the world(my hats of to "allyouneed islove")and we are all blessed, every day, by their caring and concern.
It remains that a huge number of peolple that don't have adequate access to health care: How can we channel all of this caring to make possible, the best health care to all ?
Be well : Have peace: Keep caring.

A heart murmur occurs when the heart valves don't open and close correctly.

The MDs probably didn't think to look for that in a 22 year old.

Perhaps it was small enough to not be noticed using tradition methods and wouldn't show up without a detailed MRI scan. Doctors don't assume the rare cases such as these, and won't needlessly send patients to get an expensive MRI "just to see".

She most likely had infective endocarditis!!! Classic symptoms! Where did this happen?????
Endocarditis is an infection that invades the innermost lining of the heart. MURMURS are not detected with MRI's or any other scans and are uauslly detected by simple auscultation of the chest area. If unsure and echocardiogram will simple confirm and usually in cases like this it will reveal the vegetation

I am so sorry. Although i haven't experienced anything like this, I also recently had a friend die, and my grandma died a while ago too. I hope you and your family are ok.

Sometimes doctors miss things. Technology fails all the time. Computers crash, iPod's break, phones die. It is very unfortunate that it happened to you. My friend died of an uncurable cancer, and I was thinking the same thing.

Like someone else said, the heart murmur might have been so small, they didn't even notice it.

I am endlessly sorry about what happened to you. I hope you are doing ok, and just know that it will get better.

Good Luck.