A physicians’ failure to diagnose a medical condition is one of the leading causes of malpractice claims in the United States, accounting for over 40% filed each year. This is a situation where the doctor or other medical personnel do not identify or appropriately treat an illness or disease. The condition may be diagnosed as something else or missed entirely. If your physician missed an important developing disease in you or someone in your family you should seek advice from a medical malpractice attorney. While in some instances there may have been a valid reason for the misdiagnosis, other times it is caused by a doctors’ negligence.
When Serious Symptoms Are Missed
There are many ways a doctor may be found negligent if he misses an important diagnosis. Starting with the basic exam, a physician needs to be looking specifically for certain signs of illness such as labored breathing or raised moles. If they do not conduct a thorough exam they may miss an important symptom of a serious illness. For some people who are at risk for certain illness, a physician should be either performing or recommending special screening exams. They should also be paying close attention to what you tell them during the exam and act accordingly to any health complaints you may have.Testing procedures will often lead to a medical malpractice claim if the physician fails to order the right test or misinterprets the results. In some instances they may even ignore the results entirely such as with a Missouri father who died when his physician did not order additional tests after a stomach x-ray showed signs of air. This is an indication of a disease known as diverticulitis that normally can be treated successfully when a diagnosis is made in time. In this instance the failure to further investigate the x-ray results allowed the condition to develop a deadly infection. At the time, the patient was being treated for a kidney stones, so the physician did not make not of the abnormality in the stomach. The family of the man was able to settle their claim of wrongful death for $1 million.
Sometimes doctors are focused solely on the initial diagnosis and forget that it may be masking a more serious underlying condition. Had the doctor in the previously mentioned claim looked at the entire picture when studying the x-ray results, he would have noted the air and investigated more thoroughly. The infection would have likely been avoided, and the children would still have their father.
Accurate Diagnosis is Vital
Modern medical advances make it imperative that a condition or disease be diagnosed as soon as possible. For example, great strides have been made in the treatment of stroke victims, but the medicine needs to be administered within a certain time-frame following the onset of symptoms in order to be effective.Contact an Attorney
We may not want to believe that a person we trust to take care of our body could make a mistake, but it happens every day. The job of medical malpractice attorneys is to determine if the mistake was an honest one and rectified immediately, or if it was reckless and caused more harm to the patient. If you have any concerns regarding medical treatment you have recently received, ask an attorney at the Zevan and Davidson Law Firm to examine your case to determine if you are eligible for compensation.Call (314) 588-7200 to schedule a free consultation today.
photo credit: RLHyde via Flickr
We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here
