More than 12% of cancer cases are initially misdiagnosed. In many cases, the failure to diagnose was caused by health professionals simply not listening to patients, or not taking symptoms seriously, or by doctors missing important information and then failing to timely perform the tests and diagnostic studies necessary to diagnose the condition. Misdiagnosis can cause a delay in entry of the correct diagnosis which often leads to a delayed diagnosis that can cause problems such as treatable cancers becoming harder to treat or completely untreatable. Delay in diagnosis often leads to serious complications, disfigurement, and sometimes a wrongful death. You should consult a malpractice lawyer if you think you have suffered from a delayed diagnose that has resulted in the death of a loved one.
A malpractice attorney can file a medical malpractice claim against the medical professional whose negligence delayed the diagnosis. These parties may include the primary care practitioner, who elected not to perform a diagnostic test or issue a referral, the radiologist, who misinterpreted the x-rays, the surgeon, who did not remove a tumor properly or did not notice suspicious tissue and refer the patient to a specialist, or any other specialists who may have had contact with the patient, and in some cases, manufacturers of malfunctioning technology and medical equipment may also be liable.
A significant delay in diagnosis can act to completely deprive a patient of his or her chance of survival of an illness causing a preventable premature death from diseases such as cancer or heart attack. A medical malpractice lawyer may advise a patient to sue the physician and hospital using the “loss of chance of survival” doctrine. Many States now recognize this doctrine. Patients may base a lawsuit on a person’s loss of any chance to survive an illness such as cancer by a medical provider’s negligent failure to timely diagnose the condition to allow for lifesaving treatment to prevent death due to the untreated course of the illness.
If your family has suffered a severe injury or a wrongful death arising from a delayed diagnosis and treatment of a life threatening disease it is important that you contact a malpractice attorney to sort out your rights for recovering the costs of medical treatments, and other related financial loss and emotional injury due to the loss of a loved one. A malpractice lawyer can sort out all the medical records, expert reports and help you determine if you have a valid malpractice claim against the provider of medical services.
