Misdiagnosis or Late Diagnosis

What is misdiagnosis or late diagnosis?

A misdiagnosis means that the doctor guessed wrong, did not look at all of the patient’s symptoms, failed to order appropriate tests, or misread test results. In some cases, doctors may be in a rush, so they only skim a patient’s chart. This can result in serious injuries to the patient.

Patients who are given the wrong diagnosis can suffer greatly during incorrect treatment. Taking medication for an illness they do not have can have serious repercussions. At the same time, their actual illness will be getting worse. If their true illness is cancer, this could result in death when their diagnosis is delayed.

If your doctor does not diagnose you with an illness, this can also negatively impact your health. Many individuals have their fears and observations dismissed by physicians, only to receive a diagnosis down the road. This is a late diagnosis, and it can increase the cost of treatment as well as its chances of being successful. 

If your misdiagnosis or late diagnosis has caused an injury, you may have a case for a misdiagnosis lawsuit.

Can you sue a doctor for misdiagnosis?

If your doctor misdiagnosed your illness and you suffered an injury because of it, you may be able to file a misdiagnosis lawsuit against them. However, you cannot sue your doctor without proving their negligence.

You will need to prove negligence as you would in any personal injury case: by proving duty of care, breach of duty, causation, and damages.

Duty of care is obvious with medical professionals, as they take an oath to maintain a medical standard of care that will not cause patients harm. If they breach this duty by misreading scans and therefore misdiagnosing a patient, they put the patient at risk.

Once you have proven that your doctor violated their duty to protect your health and offer you the best treatment, you must prove that you are injured and their breach caused your injuries.

If your doctor misdiagnoses your cancer as a kidney stone, your tumor may continue growing and become untreatable. This would have been prevented by having adequate medical care from your doctor. Thus, they caused your injuries.

To sue a doctor, you need to have suffered damages – financial and emotional losses – that the lawsuit will return to you when you win. If you have not lost anything, such as money on medical bills or quality of life, then you have no misdiagnosis lawsuit.

Do you have to pay for a misdiagnosis?

If you have been misdiagnosed, you should not have to pay for your treatment – both the unnecessary treatment you may have been given and the treatment you should have been given in the first place.

To recover your damages, you will need to file a misdiagnosis lawsuit against the doctor who misdiagnosed you. With this lawsuit, you can recover compensation for past and future medical bills, the emotional losses you suffered, and the time that you had to take off of work due to your illness.

How common is misdiagnosis?

In the United States, one in 20 patients has been misdiagnosed. While that means that doctors have a 95% success rate, the 5% of individuals who have not been diagnosed properly are at risk of death. These patients may be suffering from ongoing pain related to their illness, new pain caused by their unnecessary treatment, or a potentially fatal disease that is continuing to grow.

Some illnesses are commonly misdiagnosed by doctors who are in a rush or have not done proper tests. Individuals who suffer from asthma may have their symptoms diagnosed as bronchitis repeatedly before a doctor notices their actual illness. People suffering from heart attacks, especially women, could be dismissed as having indigestion or gas.

Illnesses such as Lyme disease and lupus that cause fatigue are often misdiagnosed as depression or a simple lack of energy.

Without treatment, these illnesses can cause serious health complications.

Is misdiagnosis medical malpractice?

Misdiagnosis or late diagnosis is a form of medical malpractice. It is the result of a doctor not providing the standard of care required by them.

Doctors may be understaffed, overworked, overtired, or distracted while on the job. If they take their personal frustrations out on patients by providing poor quality of care or skipping required tests, they are not doing their jobs properly. This puts patients’ lives at risk and makes them liable for any damages they cause.