Failure to Diagnose Cancer in a Timely Manner

If you are like most people, when you think of medical malpractice, you think of a situation where a doctor makes a mistake during surgery or provides a patient with the wrong medication. However, there are also errors that physicians make that constitute indirect harm rather than direct. One of these harms is the delayed diagnosis of cancer or other illnesses.

How Delayed Diagnosis Relates to Medical Malpractice

Not every small diagnostic error by a doctor holds legal responsibility. Instead, there are three factors that go into a wrong diagnosis medical malpractice lawsuit, including:

• A relationship between the doctor and patient was in existence
• The physician was negligent and did not offer treatment in a competent and skillful manner
• This negligence led to injury of the patient

Determining Whether a Doctor Was Negligent

This is often the most difficult factor to prove. In order to do so, you will need a lawyer who shows that there was a doctor-patient relationship when the appointment took place and that the doctor did not provide reasonable treatment in a skillful manner. For instance, the attorney you hire may look at whether another doctor would have diagnosed cancer while your doctor did not in order to determine whether they met professional standards.

Diagnostic Testing Errors

In some cases, it may be shown that a doctor was unable to properly diagnose cancer because they received inaccurate results from the testing they did. This might occur because the equipment used for diagnostics was not properly working, or some sort of human error got in the way. An example might be if two samples were mixed up and the doctor believed a set of results were one patient’s when they were actually for another patient. Medical malpractice might not be found of the doctor in this case. The technician who worked with the samples might be liable.

If you believe that your physician’s failure to diagnose cancer has caused you indirect harm, the experts at Barovick Law are here to help. We can assist and empower you in receiving the damages you need to cover your medical expenses. Get in touch with us today for a consultation to see what your options are.