Both misdiagnosis and delay in diagnosis are forms of medical malpractice that can result in serious injury or death of patients. Misdiagnosis is of course when a medical provider diagnoses one condition, thus failing to treat the real condition that the patient has. Delay in diagnosis occurs when, either due to a misdiagnosis or other error, a patient’s condition goes undiagnosed and untreated so that it advances to cause injury or death.
It is important to know that not all missed or delayed diagnoses constitute medical malpractice. To bring a medical malpractice claim, a patient must still prove that the missed or delayed diagnosis (1) occurred because the healthcare provider failed to comply with the standard of care; and (2) caused serious injury or death.
What Errors Result in a Misdiagnosis or Delayed Diagnosis?
Missed and delayed diagnoses can occur in a number of ways that often raise questions of medical malpractice. Some examples are as follows:
- Failure to read, act upon or inform a patient about abnormal test results;
- Failure to order a test that would have revealed the patient’s condition;
- Failure to identify abnormalities on a test or scan;
- Failure to screen for cancer or other diseases for which a given patient is at risk;
- Failure of providers to accurately communicate with each other and the patient; and
- Failure to investigate a patient’s symptoms and complaints, whether in the office or the hospital.
All of the above errors, and many others, have led to the missed and delayed diagnosis of extremely harmful conditions, including cancer, myocardial infarction (heart attack), deep vein thrombosis or embolism (clots), internal bleeding, stroke, correctable blood disorders, cardiac and brain aneurisms, and post-operative complications such as bleeding and infection.
In each of these scenarios, the legal question remains whether the health care provider complied with the standard of care, and if they didn’t, whether the patient was harmed as a result. For example, if a lab or test is incorrectly reported, but the error is later discovered and corrected without harm to the patient, a medical malpractice claim would likely not be successful because no serious harm occurred. But if that same lab or test was incorrectly reported, and the patient’s condition worsened and caused serious harm or death, a medical malpractice claim should be investigated by an experienced medical malpractice attorney.
Similarly, if a medical provider diagnoses a patient with the wrong condition, but the diagnosis was reasonable or the error was caught and the patient was unharmed, a medical malpractice claim would not likely succeed. But if the provider persisted with the wrong diagnosis to the point where the standard of care was breached, and the patient suffers severe harm, malpractice has likely occurred.
If you or a loved one believe that you have been harmed by a missed or delayed diagnosis, SUGARMAN has a team of dedicated personal injury attorneys with decades of experience ready to take your call. If you would like to speak to us, please call us at (617)542-1000, email us at , or fill out our contact form.