If your injury or disease seriously worsened as a result of a medical professional’s failure to diagnose, you may well be a victim of medical malpractice. Contact the accomplished attorneys at Nagel Rice LLP for a free consultation. Our experienced medical malpractice lawyers will quickly determine whether you have grounds for a viable lawsuit. If so, we will fight vigorously for damages to compensate you for medical costs, loss of income, and pain and suffering.
One of the most frightening types of medical malpractice is the failure to diagnose a serious condition. Although some diseases or injuries may be difficult to diagnose because patients remain asymptomatic or their symptoms are ambiguous, doctors have a responsibility to be observant, take thorough medical histories, ask pertinent questions, and administer any necessary diagnostic tests if they suspect a problem.
How is “failure to diagnose” defined?
Failure to diagnose is a phrase that means your doctor has demonstrated negligence by not making the connection between your symptoms and a specific medical condition. By not diagnosing your problem and failing to administer proper treatment or refer you to an appropriate specialist, your doctor has violated the duty of care owed to you as a patient.
Possible Calamities that May Result from Failure to Diagnose
Your doctor’s failure to diagnose may have put you at terrible risk. This is particularly true if your doctor failed to diagnose a condition that put you in immediate danger or progressed quickly making treatment more complicated, more invasive, or even completely ineffective.
There are a great many situations in which an early diagnosis can mean the difference between easy treatment and disfiguring surgery or toxic treatments, or even between life and death.
When doctors fail to diagnose the following medical conditions, it can make a critical difference in patient outcomes:
- Heart attack
- Stroke
- Cancer (especially breast, colon, prostate, lung, and melanoma which can metastasize quickly)
- Aortic dissection
- Internal bleeding
- Pulmonary embolism
- Lyme disease
- Brain aneurysms
- Allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis
- Drug overdose
If you have tragically lost a close relative to wrongful death as a result of a doctor’s failure to diagnose, we will stand by you and do everything we can to bring you justice.
How Failure to Diagnose Affects Patient Care
In many cases, the healthcare professional’s negligence begins before the failure to diagnose occurs, such as when the doctor or other healthcare provider:
- Fails to look for or ask about symptoms
- Fails to perform a comprehensive physical examination
- Fails to ask which medications or supplements the patient is taking
- Fails to connect the dots between patient medical history, recent travel, etc. with a possible injury or disease condition
- Fails to order diagnostic tests to rule out less common reasons for particular symptoms, such as blood tests, EKGs, imagining tests (e.g. MRI or CT scan, ultrasound, mammogram)
- Misreads an imaging test or misinterprets a test result
What Failure to Diagnose Attorneys Have to Prove
Our legal team has an outstanding track record of successful outcomes. For over three decades, we have won cumulatively over $1 billion for our clients and you can trust us to work equally hard on your behalf. We are well aware that in order to win your case, whether through negotiations or a courtroom trial, we will have to prove that:
- You were in a doctor-patient relationship with the defendant, meaning you were being treated in a professional capacity
- Your doctor breached the duty of care that exists in such a relationship
- Your doctor’s breach of care resulted in your injury
- Your injury lead to actual damages
We may be able to recover economic and non-economic damages. Economic damages are those that are monetary, such as medical expenses and lost income. Non-economic damages are those that are intangible and difficult to quantify, such as pain and suffering or loss of enjoyment of life.
Legal Services Nagel Rice Will Provide
From the moment you become our client, we will take over all legal and logistical matters relative to your case. Our sharp lawyers will handle all of the following while you rest and recover:
- Communications with opposing attorneys and insurance adjusters
- Examinations of all medical records
- Investigations to find out whether your doctor has any history of similar negligence
- Identification of all responsible parties (e.g. a lab technician as well as your doctor)
- Agile negotiations/aggressive litigation
- Consultations with relevant experts who will testify to bolster your case
Notably, failure to diagnose requires one or more expert witnesses to testify that your doctor’s failure to diagnose was the cause of the damages you incurred.
Taking Prompt Action Is Important
In spite of the fact that we have two years from the date you knew or should have known about the injury to file your lawsuit, the sooner we start gathering evidence, the more accurate that evidence is likely to be. Also, it is always best to get a head start in understanding the parameters of your case so that we can come up with the most effective strategy possible.
Nagel Rice Always Fights for Maximum Compensation
We believe that the medical professional who violated your trust must be held accountable and will fight hard to bring you the resources you need to restart your life after the trauma you and your family have suffered. Depending on particular circumstances, the amount of compensation we obtain will vary, but you can count on our tough negotiation tactics to bring you the maximum dollar amount possible.
Contact Our Experienced Failure to Diagnose Attorneys Today
In addition to providing outstanding legal representation, you will find our lawyers to be supportive and compassionate. Contact us now so we can begin framing your case and fighting for your rights.