When you seek medical care, you expect your physician to provide you with the level of care that is expected of doctors in their field. This includes promptly identifying and addressing any illnesses you have. Unfortunately, some doctors may fail to diagnose a condition even when the signs are present.
If you are living with an illness your doctor failed to identify, a St. Louis failure to diagnose lawyer may be able to help. You could be entitled to compensation through a medical malpractice claim. Let a skilled medical malpractice attorney review your case and assist you in your pursuit of justice.
After a misdiagnosis occurs due to a St. Louis doctor’s failure to meet the accepted standard of care, our attorneys may be able to help a patient seek financial compensation. Understanding the types of misdiagnoses may help a patient identify a viable case.
A false positive is a misdiagnosis that occurs when a doctor incorrectly identifies an illness that is not present. While it is advantageous not to have a serious illness, undergoing costly and unnecessary treatments or surgeries can harm a patient. In addition, a false positive could distract a medical team from identifying the actual underlying medical condition.
Physicians are expected to promptly diagnose an illness when there are signs or symptoms. If a doctor takes too long to reach the correct conclusion, a patient’s treatment may be delayed, and the patient may lose the chance for successful treatment.
Some errors have nothing to do with failing to act on certain symptoms. A doctor can also be liable for malpractice if they misread lab test results. Often, these results are the only sign that something is wrong. Errors involving this type of documentation can have serious consequences.
Our lawyers can help determine what type of misdiagnosis occurred in your case and gather evidence to support your claim.
Any condition can be misdiagnosed depending on the circumstances. However, doctors are more likely to miss some illnesses than others. This can happen when symptoms are similar to other health issues or difficult to detect to begin with. Some of the most common examples include the following:
Despite the challenges of diagnosing these conditions, doctors are generally expected to understand the signs and follow the proper procedure to identify the cause of a person’s health issues. When a doctor misses a diagnosis, our St. Louis attorneys are here to help.
When failure to diagnose lawsuits are successful, victims are entitled to recover monetary damages. The specific types of compensation may vary from one case to another. Available damages may include the following:
Recovering these losses is only possible with a strong negligence claim. Our failure to diagnose lawyers in St. Louis can review medical records, interview witnesses, and discover the doctor’s diagnostic error.
A “failure to diagnose” occurs when a health care provider does not diagnose a condition that should be diagnosed. It may be the basis for a malpractice claim if the condition should have been diagnosed, and if the delay or failure caused harm.
Not every missed diagnosis is malpractice, but when it leads to serious harm, you may have a case. Failure to diagnose becomes malpractice when a doctor’s negligence—ignoring symptoms, misreading tests, or not ordering exams—results in injuries, costly treatments, or worse damages, including death.
Some common conditions that may not be timely diagnosed include:
Other conditions may not be diagnosed because they are rare, but a failure to timely diagnose the conditions could result in devastating consequences. Some examples include idiopathic intracranial hypertension and certain vitamin deficiencies.
An experienced malpractice attorney knows how to find the evidence necessary to prove your case. One or more medical experts may be needed to testify that the health care providers were negligent and that their negligence caused harm to you or your loved one.
If the delay in diagnosis did not meaningfully affect or worsen your condition, it may not make sense to pursue a malpractice case. Some conditions are harmful no matter when they are diagnosed, and there may not be enough evidence to show that a delay in diagnosis changed your prognosis. Other conditions are known to cause harm if not timely diagnosed. An experienced malpractice attorney and medical experts can help determine whether the failure to diagnose your condition caused you concrete, measurable harm.
Your medical records are a key piece of evidence in your malpractice case. Some healthcare institutions produce only limited medical records when a patient requests them, but more complete sets when requested by a lawyer or requested through litigation. Other evidence that may be helpful includes photographs or notes that you have taken.
If a doctor was negligent, you should be able to sue. However, it may not make financial sense for a lawyer to take your case if you eventually got better.
The compensation you may be able to recover varies based on numerous factors, including:
While some people may not be able to recover much money, others may be able to recover enough money to support themselves for the rest of their lives. An experienced attorney can guide you through this process and advise you of the value of your claim.
It depends on a few factors, such as which state you were in and which state the doctor was in when the potential malpractice occurred. Timing is important because different states have different time limits (called statute of limitations) on how long you have to file a claim. You should contact an attorney as soon as possible if you think you may have a claim, because waiting to act could prohibit you from being able to file a lawsuit.
If you have suffered injuries due to a missed diagnosis, you may be able to seek compensation through the legal system. The right approach could help you make the case that your doctor failed in their duty to provide you with adequate care.
Let a St. Louis failure to diagnose lawyer advocate on your behalf. Contact us today for a private consultation to discuss your rights.