Many lawsuits for medical malpractice are due to either having a delay in diagnosing or misdiagnosing a patient’s conditions, an injury they may have endured, and an illness they are suffering. These errors can bring forth the incorrect treatment, a delay in treating, and no treatment care at all. Those three factors can either make matters much worse, or it can potentially end up killing the patient. Although these assets may be viewed as room for a lawsuit, an error in diagnosing is not sufficient in filing one.
As you read on, I will explain what the patient must do to prove a medical malpractice claim because of a misdiagnosis, what are the different diagnostic errors that occur, and why are misdiagnosis typically more prevalent in emergency rooms.
How to Prove Medical Malpractice was Caused by a Diagnosis Mistake
Not all diagnostic mistakes are made a liability for doctors. There must be three things that a patient must prove in order to place a lawsuit:
The majority of medical malpractice cases center around points two and three: Was the doctor in fact negligent? And did the injuries derive from that negligence?
Was Negligence Performed by the Doctor?
Even the best doctors can make mistakes in the diagnosis process while providing adequate care. This is why just solely trying to sue based off of a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis is not means for a lawsuit. It would have to be determined that the doctor did not performed as they should have during the diagnosis. The different diagnosis steps that the doctor took would have to be investigated.
Doctors use the “differential diagnosis” to come up with the disease or the medical condition that the patient may have. Depending on the initial evaluation of the doctor upon seeing a patient, they provide a list of potential diseases or conditions that it could be. The MD then begins to tests all the possibilities by determining each diagnosis strength according to what is observed by the patient, gathering detailed information about the symptoms, medical history of the patient, ordering test to be done such as, CT scans, or by referring them to a specialist. The potential conditions will start to be ruled out until only one diagnosis is left in the process. Sometimes, there is not only one diagnosis left at the end of the process.
With a more detailed investigation, there might be some more information that arises that will have the doctor add it to their differential diagnostic.
When a malpractice is due to a diagnostic mistake, the patient has to show that they would not have been misdiagnosed if the doctor had been in similar circumstances. The patient would have to prove one of these two things:
Mistakes from Diagnostic Tests
It can occur that a doctor misdiagnosis a condition due to the results from a lab tests which were inaccurate. Errors in diagnostic tests can occur by:
When this occurs, the doctor may not be held responsible, but someone else can be such as, a specialist that misread or missed something from an x-ray.
Was the Harm Done the Cause of the Misdiagnosis?
The patient needs to prove that the delay or misdiagnosis was what caused the injury or condition to become worse. This applies well to cancer patients that require a prompt and accurate diagnosis because cancer is known to spread very quickly. If the diagnosis was delayed, then the patient would have to get intense chemotherapy that can create the patient to no longer have any affect by the treatment, which can lead to their death. Harms can still be done even though there was room for the condition to be treated. Delaying a cancer patient’s treatments can be a harm to the patient.
Diagnosing the patient with the incorrect condition or illness, can give the patient proof of harm sustained due to the wrong diagnosis such as, experiencing stress, anxiety, depression, medical expenses, and other medical problems.
These are the different types of diagnosis errors that can be performed by medical professionals:
Giving the wrong diagnosis: This happens when a doctor tells a patient that they have an illness or condition that they do not really have.
Not coming up with a diagnosis: This happens when the doctor doesn’t find anything, but in fact the person did have a condition.
Not promptly giving the diagnosis: This happens when the doctor took a long time to determine what the patient had.
Not being able to recognize any complications: This happens when the right diagnosis was made, but the doctor was unable to see any complications that may have made the condition or illness worse.
Not being able to detect any related diseases: This happens when the doctor determines one disease, but is unable to determine the other disease that is related to the main disease.
Not being able to detect any unrelated diseases: This happens when the doctor determines one disease, but is unable to determine the other disease that is unrelated to the main disease.
Emergency Room Misdiagnosis
Because an emergency room deals with emergency cases, doctors have less time to investigate the issue in details. Misdiagnosing in a case of someone who has an emergency is more than likely to end in a further harm because they had a severe one to begin with.
Sometimes, certain populations are more likely to not be correctly diagnosed. For example, a young person who is showing signs of gastric distress, would not receive the same diagnosis as an older person who is overweight with the same symptoms. They may say that the older person is having a heart attack, when in fact it is the younger one who is.
Some of the most recurrent conditions that are misdiagnosed are:
Did you know that ¼ to ½ of children under the age of 12 are misdiagnosed for appendicitis? And in infants, it is almost 100%.
Receiving Help
Has your condition, illness, or injury worsen because of a wrong, delayed, or no diagnosis at all? If so, you can be entitled to file a lawsuit against those liable. We have extensive background and cases involving misdiagnosis and delay in diagnoses. You will need the help and advice of a professional medical malpractice person of the law to assist you with your lawsuit.
Medical malpractice require a personal injury lawyer who has a lot of information and knowledge because they are so complicated. With us, you don’t have to feel confused. We have achieved consecutive positive results for all of those victims who suffered by a misdiagnosis or a delayed one. Feel free to call us and fight for your rights: (305)529-0001.
... View full business profile here: Percy Martinez Law Office
