The appropriate medical treatment for any illness, injury, or condition begins with a prompt, accurate diagnosis. When a doctor fails to correctly diagnose a medical condition and causes a delay in the diagnosis, the condition may require more aggressive treatment with adverse side effects, result in a worsened medical outcome, or cause wrongful death.
A Chicago misdiagnosis attorney understands the risks associated with delayed diagnosis and helps injury victims recover the compensation they deserve.
Doctors and other medical providers must carefully adhere to the care standards set by the medical community, including when examining a patient to make a diagnosis. Unfortunately, doctors are sometimes rushed, distracted, or negligent, leading to dangerously delayed diagnoses. The most common causes of delayed diagnosis include the following:
In some cases, a doctor may have a preexisting expectation of the patient’s diagnosis and then fail to consider other causes of the patient’s symptoms. An example of this occurs when a doctor makes a swift determination that a patient’s headaches are stress migraines and fails to order imaging tests that could reveal a brain tumor while it is still operable. A delayed diagnosis of this type can cause shortened life expectancy and wrongful death.
A controversial Johns Hopkins study suggests that medical errors, such as delayed diagnosis, may be the third leading cause of death in the United States.
When there is a significant delay in an accurate diagnosis of a serious medical condition, the condition often worsens. Delaying a diagnosis may mean the problem isn’t treated appropriately, while it’s more easily curable. Common conditions with late diagnoses include:
The above conditions may present with generalized symptoms that are easily missed or misinterpreted as common conditions, resulting in the delay of an accurate diagnosis.
In many cases, a delayed diagnosis causes more advanced illness. For instance, many types of cancers are curable when diagnosed and treated in stage one, when the cancer remains localized. By stages three and four, cancer has spread to distant lymph nodes and organs, making it far more difficult to cure even with aggressive treatment.
A delayed diagnosis of cardiovascular emergencies, such as strokes and heart attacks, causes more severe outcomes and sometimes results in the patient’s wrongful death.
A doctor’s failure to make a timely, accurate diagnosis is a violation of their duty of care. Physicians and other medical providers have a legal obligation to treat patients at the level of care accepted as the standard by the medical community. Delays in an accurate diagnosis violate the medical provider’s duty of care.
To recover compensation in a medical malpractice case requires evidence that the physician owed a duty of care to the patient, that they breached the duty of care through negligence, and that the breach of duty caused the patient’s injury, worsened medical outcome, or wrongful death. Finally, the injured party or their surviving family must present evidence that they’ve suffered financial damages as well as physical harm from the delayed diagnosis.
Common recoverable damages in delayed diagnosis medical malpractice claims include medical expenses, lost wages, and compensation for pain and suffering. Catastrophic injury damages may be available for permanent harm, or wrongful death damages to the closest surviving family member after a delayed diagnosis causes a patient’s death. Contact our medical malpractice lawyer in Chicago today for skilled legal representation.
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