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Patients trust their doctors to provide them with timely and important information concerning their health. When doctors diagnose a condition too late, the results can be catastrophic. In the worst cases of delayed diagnosis, the patient dies or suffers serious illness and disability.
If a delayed diagnosis results from a doctor’s failure to follow certain medical standards, the doctor can be held liable for malpractice. Learn more about how the Long Island medical malpractice attorneys of Dell & Dean PLLC can advise you.
Why Do Delayed Diagnoses Happen?
Understanding the cause of a late diagnosis helps an injured patient make a case for medical malpractice. Some common explanations for delayed diagnoses in Long Island include:
- Symptoms that are similar to those of minor conditions: Having a particular symptom can be indicative of several different conditions. Doctors often mistake signs of serious ailments for something more benign.
- Vague symptoms: Patients may tell their doctors about vague symptoms like generalized pain or fatigue. A skilled medical professional will investigate further to determine what the real problem is.
- Failure to order tests: Doctors should recognize the need to order tests for their patients when they present with various symptoms. If they fail to do so, it could be months before a proper diagnosis is made.
- Failure to properly interpret test results: By the same token, laboratory and other forms of testing are only as useful as their interpretations. Misreading test results can significantly delay a proper diagnosis, to the patient’s detriment.
- Failure to follow up with the patient: Any diligent doctor in Long Island will follow up with a patient to determine if symptoms worsen or new ones develop. Failure to do this, however, could allow a serious disease to go undetected.
- Communication and clerical problems: Any type of medical malpractice can have its roots in communication breakdowns and clerical errors, like mistakes made in the patient’s file. Unfortunately these simple mistakes can have deadly results for the patient.
The Consequences of Delayed Diagnoses
Diagnosing a patient too late can mean the difference between life and death, or lead to severe complications and disabilities. Here are a few specific ways this happens:
- Missing the window for effective treatment: Some diseases and conditions are relatively easy to treat when they are detected early. Missing this window could eliminate any possible chance of curing or reversing the problem.
- Additional complications: The longer a disease goes undiagnosed, the more likely it is to affect other parts of the body. One classic example is cancer spreading in the body.
- Harmful or dangerous treatments: A delayed diagnosis could cause the doctor to prescribe the wrong treatment for the wrong disease. Once the correct diagnosis is made, the patient may require extreme or dangerous treatments that can cause other problems.
- Death: In the worst cases of medical malpractice, the patient dies due to the late diagnosis. Surviving family members may be able to pursue a wrongful death case.
When a Delayed Diagnosis is Malpractice in Long Island
Proving medical malpractice requires proving more than a mistake. The mistake has to be unreasonable in light of the circumstances and in light of the doctor’s background and experience. Described another way, it must fall short of the accepted standard of care.
This is the essence of malpractice. If your diagnosis came too late, you may be able to make a successful medical malpractice claim. It requires proving these elements:
- Duty of care: This duty arises from the doctor-patient relationship.
- Breach: A breach of the duty of care comes when the doctor fails to follow the applicable standard of medical care (e.g., by failing to order tests that another similarly situated doctor would have ordered).
- Causation: The breach caused the delayed diagnosis.
- Damages: Due to the delayed diagnosis, the patient suffered harm.
Also known as medical negligence, medical malpractice can cause a patient to suffer both economic damages (e.g., medical bills) and non-economic damages (e.g., pain and suffering). The patient can file a lawsuit to recover compensation for these losses.
Explore Your Legal Options With Dell & Dean
Did you or a loved one suffer a delayed diagnosis? If so, it’s time to learn more about your legal options and how our Long Island medical malpractice lawyers can serve you. Get in touch with us today to schedule your free initial consultation.
