Medical Malpractice Involving Failure to Diagnose
When people are ill or injured they rely on medical professionals to provide a timely diagnosis and treatment. Unfortunately, countless patients receive medical care that is negligent, or which falls below the accepted standard. A common form of medical neglect, or medical malpractice, is failure to diagnose.
Medical malpractice involving failure to diagnose can result in prolonged illness, more advanced stages of disease, and even death. Victims of medical malpractice and failure to diagnose may be due substantial financial compensation for related damages. Medical malpractice attorneys at the Quick Law Group, PLLC, work with individuals in Bellevue, WA, and surrounding areas to hold liable parties accountable for their losses.
Causes of Failure to Diagnose
Medical professionals are not expected to be perfect in their care. However, they are expected to deliver a degree of care that meets the standard provided by similarly trained professionals in their field. When it comes to diagnoses, doctors should use their expertise and available diagnostic tools to identify what a patient is suffering from, so that they can be treated appropriately. When medical professionals fail to diagnose a condition correctly, it is often the result of medical malpractice. Forms of medical malpractice that can lead to a failure to diagnose include:
- Failure to recognize the symptoms of certain conditions
- Failure to take symptoms seriously (claiming that symptoms are purely psychological in nature)
- Failure to order appropriate diagnostic tests
- Misreading of diagnostic test results
- Failure to report or follow-up with patients regarding diagnostic test results
What Needs to Be Proven in a Failure to Diagnose Case?
Proving a case of medical malpractice involving failure to diagnose can be complex. Medical professionals are likely to have an expansive legal team on their side, ready to defend them, which is why it is so important for medical malpractice victims to have a knowledgeable medical malpractice attorney ready to build their case. Our lawyers gather the evidence necessary to establish the key factors of a failure to diagnose claim for our Bellevue clients:
- There was a doctor-patient relationship, meaning that the doctor had a duty of care to their patient
- The doctor failed to meet up to their duty of care in diagnosing the patient’s condition (i.e. another similarly trained medical professional presented with the same circumstances would have been able to provide the correct diagnosis)
- The doctor’s failure to diagnose was the direct cause of physical and/or financial injuries/damages for the patient
Damages in a Failure to Diagnose Case
A failure to diagnose can lead to widespread damages that are both economic and non-economic in nature. When failure to diagnose is the result of medical negligence, liable parties should be held accountable for the full range of the patient’s damages, which may include:
- Medical expenses
- Lost wages and/or diminished wage earning capacity
- Pain and suffering
- Wrongful death damages (funeral and burial expenses, loss of income and benefits, loss of consortium), if the failure to diagnose causes the patient’s death
Contact Quick Law Group, PLLC
If you have suffered physical and financial damages caused by a failure to diagnose, you may have grounds to file a medical malpractice claim. To discuss your situation and consider your best course of legal action, schedule a consultation with the lawyers at the Quick Law Group, PLLC. To get started, send us a message online, or call our Bellevue law firm at (425) 576-8150.