Doctors often try to see as many patients as possible during each workday, and this has a drastic effect on the amount of time and attention they are able to give to each patient. The pressures sometimes come from insurance companies, but they also stem from physician compensation schemes that reward high volumes of service.
If a doctor is distracted by personal issues, burned out, bored, or just ready for lunch, they might not give full consideration to your symptoms. And when those symptoms indicate a likelihood that you are suffering from some form of cancer, that lack of attention can be deadly.
With early diagnosis and proper treatment, many types of cancer can be cured. However, the longer cancer cells are able to multiply and spread, the greater the likelihood that the cancer will lead to death. The treatment for cancer at advanced stages is not only less effective but more damaging to the body, reducing the quality of life immensely.
An experienced Montana delayed diagnosis lawyer knows that when a doctor fails to diagnose cancer and misdiagnoses it as something else, that doctor may well have handed down a death sentence. So, what happens legally in that situation? Do you have a claim for medical malpractice? The answer depends on the circumstances.
Signs That You May Have a Valid Legal Claim for Cancer Misdiagnosis
Doctors are not considered liable for malpractice every time they fail to properly diagnose a medical condition. To be liable for malpractice, they must have failed to take action that a reasonably prudent physician would have undertaken in the same circumstances. In other words, the doctor must have failed to provide reasonable care owed to the patient in that particular situation. A doctor at the scene of a car accident might not be expected to look for signs of cancer and order tests, but a specialist examining a patient in the office should be doing just that.
Signs that a doctor may have acted irresponsibly and therefore be liable for failure to diagnose cancer include:
- Failing to order routine tests to screen for cancer after you reported symptoms that indicate you could potentially have cancer
- Failing to ask about risk factors or ignoring risk factors
- Failing to review test results in a timely fashion
- Misinterpreting test results
- Ignoring protocols that call for further testing
In addition, a lab could be held liable for mishandling test samples or conducting tests improperly. Medical facilities will not readily admit to these types of mistakes, so it is necessary to conduct a thorough investigation to determine what the standard should have been in a particular situation and how the failure of the doctor or other medical professionals to live up to that standard caused injuries.
Proving that Failure to Diagnose Caused Harm
Doctors misdiagnose conditions all the time, and they will assert that failure to detect a condition like cancer right away does not change the patient’s outcome by much. It is often necessary to bring in medical experts to testify that if your doctor had responded appropriately and you received a diagnosis of cancer sooner, your treatment would have been less invasive, or your recovery time would have been less. Once that is established, you can argue that your medical costs would have been less, you wouldn’t have missed as much work, and your pain and suffering would not have been as great.
If you’re in a situation where you need to prove that a cancer misdiagnosis led to the wrongful death of a loved one, you will probably need an expert to prove that your loved one would have had a significantly greater likelihood of survival if they had received a timely diagnosis.
False Positive Diagnosis
In some cases, a cancer misdiagnosis does not involve a failure to detect cancer but a doctor’s insistence that you need to be treated for cancer when you are not suffering from this disease. Cancer treatments are extremely hard on the body, and a false cancer diagnosis can cause extreme pain and time lost from work for no reason. Even worse, the unnecessary mental anguish of receiving a false cancer diagnosis can be extremely destructive. It may be possible to receive significant damages for the unnecessary suffering caused by this type of misdiagnosis.
Experienced Legal Representation is Critical When Your Doctor Misdiagnoses Cancer
While a cancer misdiagnosis can cause obvious harm, the task of building a legal case to receive compensation for that harm is not an easy task. An attorney with experience in medical malpractice and misdiagnosis cases will know how to obtain the necessary evidence and the most effective ways to frame arguments to demonstrate liability, but without the right knowledge, it can be impossible to succeed with this type of case. At Ragain & Clark, PC, we know how to build a cancer misdiagnosis case so that we are prepared to succeed in court. Knowing this will often encourage the malpractice insurers to offer a full settlement before trial. Whether at the negotiation table or in the courtroom, we are prepared to take the most effective steps to gain a full recovery for our clients.
If you or a loved one suffered unnecessarily due to cancer misdiagnosis, we invite you to schedule a free consultation to learn more about what may be possible in your case.
