When you go to the doctor with a complaint or need routine medical care, you expect your doctor to care for you and identify and address any medical conditions. Failing to diagnose a medical condition can lead to catastrophic repercussions for patients and, in some cases, death. What are your options when a trusted medical provider fails to identify or diagnose a serious medical condition?
The law office of Michael LoGiudice, LLP, protects patients’ legal rights and advocates for individuals harmed by the actions of careless practitioners in the greater New York area. Our legal team understands how negligence on the part of medical professionals and facilities can change a person’s life. We aggressively pursue fair compensation on your behalf that will pay for your injuries, holding careless professionals accountable for their actions.
If you believe a doctor failed to diagnose a significant medical condition and you live in the greater New York area, contact our office today to arrange a free legal consultation.
What Is Failure to Diagnose?
Medical malpractice is a broad legal category. “Failure to diagnose” is a type of case that falls into this category. This failure occurs when a doctor or other medical professional does not identify or determine the nature of a patient’s medical issue in a timely or accurate manner.
Medical malpractice and failure to diagnose are complicated legal issues because malpractice cases hinge on establishing that the medical provider failed to diagnose a condition because they deviated from the medically accepted standard of patient care or provided a substandard level of care.
Failure to diagnose cases can include:
- Missed diagnosis
- Misdiagnosis
- Delayed diagnosis
Unfortunately, failure to diagnose and diagnostic errors are more common than people think. Some studies suggest that nearly 795,000 Americans are seriously harmed due to failure to diagnose or misdiagnosis errors every year.
Proving these cases can be challenging because you must establish that the medical professional deviated from the accepted standard of care or provided substandard medical care that differed from what another equally trained professional would have provided under the same circumstances. You must also show that the substandard care directly caused you harm.
Common Conditions Medical Professionals Fail to Diagnose
Failure to diagnose cases typically involves errors in diagnostic testing and misreading test results. Some of the most common issues that can lead to a failure-to-diagnose can include:
- Misinterpreting patient symptoms
- Inadequate medical history evaluation
- Failure to request specific diagnostic tests
- Failure to correctly read test results
- Failure to communicate or miscommunicating with a patient
Unfortunately, severe, life-threatening medical conditions are at the top of the most commonly delayed or misdiagnosed conditions in the United States. Data from AARP shows that cancers, including colorectal, lung, and breast cancers, are widely missed or delayed. Other medical conditions that are often misdiagnosed or lead to delayed diagnoses include:
- Heart attacks
- Infections
- Stroke
- Appendicitis
- Internal injuries
- Pulmonary embolism
- Bladder cancer
- Prostate cancer
Missing or delaying identifying these medical issues can be catastrophic for patients.
How Failure to Diagnose Harms Patients
Correctly and accurately diagnosing a patient is critical to promoting an individual’s health and wellness. Misdiagnosing a condition or failing to identify a serious medical condition gives the issue time to grow and fester, becoming a more significant problem. Early and accurate diagnoses are the key to successful treatments and patient outcomes. A delay or error can lead to substantial consequences for a patient, including:
- Delayed treatment and progression of the disease
- Missed opportunities for early treatment options
- Unnecessary or harmful treatments
- Increased medical costs
- Physical and emotional suffering
- Reduced survival chances
In the most serious cases, misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis can allow a disease to spread, leading to fatalities.
Compensation in Failure to Diagnose Cases
Failure to diagnose a medical issue doesn’t simply impact an individual’s health. It can also affect their financial security, leading to expensive medical treatments they wouldn’t have otherwise needed, time missed from work, and potentially the loss of their ability to return to work.
Individuals who have been injured by misdiagnosis or medical malpractice deserve fair compensation for their medical care and other injuries. In New York, the value of a medical malpractice case can vary, but generally, injured people are entitled to pursue money for:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages
- Loss of earning capacity
- Disability
- Emotional distress
- Pain and suffering
New York law does not cap or limit the compensation an individual can recover via a medical malpractice lawsuit like in other states.
Statute of Limitations for New York Medical Malpractice Cases
Coping with the devastating aftermath of a serious illness or injury takes time and energy, which may be in short supply. You deserve to take all the time you need to process this violation of trust and focus on your health. Unfortunately, New York law doesn’t give medical malpractice victims unlimited time to pursue legal action against a negligent medical professional or facility.
New York law gives individuals two years and six months from the date of the failure to diagnose or from when the patient should have reasonably known about the failure to diagnose to file a personal injury lawsuit. Building and filing a case before this legal deadline is crucial. If you don’t file your lawsuit before the statutory period lapses, you lose leverage against an insurer or other party you may be negotiating a settlement with. It also means the court can dismiss your case without a hearing, and you lose the ability to have your day in court.
Contact Attorney Michael LoGiudice for a Free Consultation
Medical malpractice cases are challenging because they are complicated and fact-specific. That means you need to work with an attorney who understands the nuances of these cases. The law office of Michael LoGiudice, LLP, has a long track record of helping residents in the greater New York area hold negligent medical providers accountable for their actions or lack thereof. Our compassionate team offers personalized legal strategies and moral support as you navigate this challenging time.
Contact our office today and request a free consultation to discuss your situation. Our office proudly represents individuals in Westchester, Putnam County, Dutchess County, Orange County, Rockland County, and Brewster.