Medical malpractice. It is a serious issue and the negligence of a doctor or hospital can cost the lives of others.
Unfortunately, with so many people going in and out of hospitals each day, a misdiagnosis is bound to happen. Hawaii alone averages almost 500,000 patient days in their hospitals.
If you suspect that you have a condition that was the result of a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis, you could be entitled to compensation.
How do you respond to a failure to diagnose? What legal proof is needed to act on this?
This guide will give you an idea of when you need to hire a lawyer.
Medical Malpractice
In situations with a misdiagnosis, a patient usually has to prove there was medical malpractice or strong negligence to receive compensation. To start, they have to have evidence that they were already a patient of this doctor or this hospital.
Then, you have to prove that a doctor was negligent in their actions. This typically means ignoring obvious protocols, giving you the wrong medication, making a preventable mistake during an operation, etc.
Doctors are typically expected to perform a certain level of duty of care. You need to prove that these conditions were not met.
Also, you need to prove that this negligence is what caused your injury or condition to come up. An example would be proving that an operational error occurred during surgery. Or, it could be misreading an x-ray that caused a condition to worsen before action could be taken to stop it.
Once you get that final piece of the puzzle, patients usually have a strong enough case to hand to a medical malpractice lawyer.
Diagnostic Tests
Not all misdiagnoses get caused by the negligence of doctors. Sometimes, it goes as far back as diagnostic tests that get compromised.
An example could be if you were taking a blood test to determine if you had any STDs. Well, say if a lab mixed up your results with somebody else’s blood. This can be caused by a spill or just forgetting to put the right label on the right sample.
That can result in somebody getting the wrong result. In that situation, it could mean getting early treatment for something serious like HIV was put off for years because the doctors had the wrong result. Then, when they finally get the right result, HIV has spread in the unfortunate patient.
This is when diagnostic tests can cause misdiagnosis and in that situation, you can still use a lawyer to get justice. However, you might go after the lab that controls these samples rather than the doctor.
Get Justice for Your Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis
Having a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis can mean serious consequences for your health. They can add up to thousands in medical bills plus job opportunities.
If this has impacted you, read about our other Personal Injury cases to see how you can get justice. \
