Delayed Diagnosis Lawsuit Michigan
Doctors have a great responsibility to ensure that their patients receive the best possible care. This applies to every step of the process, including during diagnosis. If a patient’s treating physician gives an incorrect or delayed diagnosis, the patient may suffer from it. Timely diagnosis and treatment are vital to a patient’s health in many cases. When medical negligence and diagnostic errors come into play, this could result in patient harm. If a delayed diagnosis caused you or a loved one serious injury or illness, you might have the basis for a medical malpractice claim.
At Lipton Law, we have extensive experience handling medical malpractice lawsuits of many different types.
Some of the case types we handle include the following:
To determine whether you have a valid malpractice claim for delayed diagnosis, contact Lipton Law today. We offer an initial free consultation to all our clients before we establish an attorney-client relationship with them. To find out if you have a case, please call 248-629-2747 today.
Delayed Diagnosis Attorneys Advocating for Patients
Patients rely on trained medical professionals to not only cure illnesses but also to treat conditions in their early stages. A delayed diagnosis can prevent patients from receiving the prompt care that they need. Patients and their loved ones can be affected for years when this devastating situation unfolds.
If you believe your doctor or another medical professional failed to diagnose your disease in a timely fashion, contact Lipton Law. Our Michigan medical malpractice lawyers can thoroughly review your medical records to determine whether negligence occurred. We can explain the best course of action based on the specifics of your circumstances. We may also be able to help you receive damages from a negligent doctor, dentist malpractice, or another medical professional for your suffering and related losses.
What Is a Delayed Diagnosis?
A delayed diagnosis occurs when a patient goes to the doctor for a diagnosis of their symptoms. When the underlying condition causing those symptoms is left undiagnosed and untreated by the doctor for too long, the patient could suffer harm. This harm often results from a worsening of the patient’s symptoms and condition. If certain illnesses or diseases are left undiagnosed for too long, this could lead to more serious complications.
Failure to Diagnose or a Delay in Diagnosis?
Types of Medical Malpractice
Practice Areas
Many people confuse three common types of medical negligence, as they are closely related. These three types are failure to diagnose, delayed diagnosis, and misdiagnosis. We’ve already covered the specifics of a delayed diagnosis. A failure to diagnose isn’t just a delay in a correct diagnosis. In a failure to diagnose case, the doctor simply did not provide a correct diagnosis. This does not mean they gave a wrong diagnosis. Medical misdiagnosis lawsuits, however, do involve a doctor giving an incorrect diagnosis for a patient’s condition.
All of these can result from similar negligence or mistakes. Examples of these mistakes include diagnostic errors, failing to take a medical history, failing to read medical records, and failing to order diagnostic tests.
Can I Sue for Delayed Diagnosis?
Yes, absolutely. However, you must have suffered actual damages or losses to have a valid delayed diagnosis claim. The best way to confirm whether or not you have a case is to speak with a law firm that has experience with medical malpractice claims. Speak with the experienced attorneys at Lipton Law for a free consultation today. We will evaluate the facts of your case and advise you on how to proceed with a delayed treatment or diagnosis case.
When Is Delayed Diagnosis Considered Medical Negligence?
By itself, a delay in diagnosis is not a signal of medical negligence. Many skilled doctors and other hospital personnel make mistakes during the performance of their jobs. After all, they’re only human. One diagnostic error is not a sufficient basis for a medical malpractice claim. However, if you can work with a medical malpractice attorney to prove negligence, you might have a case.
How to Prove Medical Negligence
It’s important to work with medical malpractice attorneys who have experience handling these cases. When a doctor fails to diagnose a patient in a timely manner, this could lead to delayed medical treatment, future harm, physical pain and suffering, and even death. That’s why it’s important to find personal injury lawyers with experience in filing a medical malpractice claim. The evidence necessary to prove medical malpractice includes:
- There was a doctor-patient relationship.
- The doctor acted negligently. This means they deviated from the accepted standard of medical care.
- That breach of the medical standard of care directly caused the patient’s harm.
- The patient suffered actual losses or damages from that breach.
Certain elements are much easier to prove than others. Work with your attorney to gather evidence to support your case. Examples of relevant evidence include records of your medical treatment, medical bills, your test results, and other supporting documents.
Why Do Delays in Diagnosis Happen?
Delays in diagnosis can happen for a variety of reasons. Some of these are simple mistakes, while others can constitute serious medical negligence:
- Incompetent health care professionals.
- Overconfidence in one’s own skills.
- Understaffing in the health care facility.
- The doctor failed to order the appropriate tests or ordered the wrong tests.
- Failing to read a patient’s medical chart.
Many of these fall under the category of diagnostic errors. However, others have more to do with a lack of attention to detail on the part of the medical professional.
Common Delayed Diagnosis Lawsuits
Certain delayed diagnosis claims occur more often than others. Below, we list some of the most common delays in diagnosis:
Delayed Diagnosis of Cancer
According to the Journal of Clinical Oncology, misdiagnosis or delays in diagnosis happen in approximately 28% of cancer cases. Delayed cancer diagnosis cases can be very serious, as cancer has the potential to affect a patient for the rest of their lives.
The following are the most commonly misdiagnosed types of cancer:
- Prostate cancer
- Lung cancer
- Breast cancer
- Pancreatic cancer
- Colorectal cancer
Many people are involved in a cancer diagnosis. Therefore, there are many opportunities for diagnostic errors to occur. If left alone for too long, progressing cancer could severely limit a patient’s outlook and treatment options.
Delayed Heart Attack Diagnosis
Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death for women. This is partially due to the frequency of heart attack misdiagnosis in women. Many doctors fail to recognize the differences between men and women when it comes to heart attack symptoms. If left alone for too long, women and other patients may suffer life-threatening damage to their bodies from an untreated heart attack.
Delayed Stroke Diagnosis
Even though strokes are a more common occurrence in the elderly, they can still happen in individuals under 45. So, it’s imperative that doctors avoid the common stroke misdiagnosis for these age groups. Strokes that occur in younger adults may be misdiagnosed more frequently than strokes in the elderly. This is because the symptoms of a stroke can often mimic the symptoms of other conditions.
If not properly diagnosed, the brain tissue can suffer irreversible damage from a stroke. It’s important to restore the flow of blood to the brain as soon as possible. This will reduce the chances of patient impairment or death.
Common Injuries Resulting from Delayed Diagnosis
The injuries and illnesses that patients suffer as a result of diagnostic mistakes largely depend on their underlying health condition. If it is a highly treatable health condition, there may be little to no harm done. However, in more serious cases, delays could result in future harm, death, or pain and suffering.
Some common injuries resulting from delays in diagnosis include the following:
- Heart attack complications
- Worsening of certain types of cancer, such as prostate cancer or lung cancer
- Infections or sepsis
- Wrongful death
- Other condition-related issues
How a Delayed Diagnosis Can Lead to a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit
If you and your attorney can prove the elements of a medical malpractice claim, you may be entitled to compensation for your losses. Doctors have certain standards of care that they must uphold. When they fail to do this, patients not only suffer physical harm, but they can also suffer financial harm. This harm comes in the form of mounting medical expenses for the treatments they need. If your doctor committed malpractice by failing to diagnose cancer or another condition in a timely manner, we recommend speaking with an experienced attorney.
Diagnosing Patients Properly and Timely
When a patient is given a delayed diagnosis of a stroke, heart attack, sepsis, cancer, or another disease or medical condition, this may be considered medical malpractice.
Medical malpractice can be extremely serious and occurs when:
- Appropriate screenings are not administered by a physician or another medical professional
- Results from a test or biopsy are misread
- Other factors result in incorrect assumptions, actions, or inaction
Delayed Diagnosis Malpractice Settlements
Not every delay in diagnosis results in actual damage to a patient. However, many of these cases do. Work with your attorney to gather as much evidence as possible to support your case. The stronger your evidence, the more likely you are to receive full and fair compensation for your losses.
Examples of the recoverable damages you can expect include but aren’t limited to:
- Current and future medical expenses
- Lost wages or income
- Pain and suffering
- Mental and emotional anguish
- Loss of consortium
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Scarring or disfigurement
- Wrongful death of a family member
File a Delayed Diagnosis Lawsuit for Fair Compensation
One of the tragedies of a delayed diagnosis case is that patients cannot recover the time lost in treating their condition. As their condition advances, their options may be severely limited, more invasive, and, overall, less successful. We believe responsible parties should be held accountable for making this type of life-changing mistake.
Call Lipton Law at 248-629-2747 or contact us online today to find out how we can provide the skilled legal assistance you need. From our office in Southfield, our attorneys offer free initial consultations to victims throughout Michigan.