See also these pages:
And these specific cancer pages:
- Breast cancer
- Cervical cancer (misread Pap smears and biopsies)
- Colon cancer
- Lung cancer
- Malignant melanoma
Research says that as many as 15 percent of all medical diagnoses are wrong. Any misdiagnosis causes wrong treatment. But tragedy lurks in one distressingly common type of misdiagnosis: the assumption that the patient has a benign, self-limited condition, when in reality the clock is ticking on a treatable serious disease that could kill if left untreated.
Misdiagnosis can be especially devastating in these areas of medicine:
- Chest pain that turns out to be from a heart attack.
- Dizziness and weakness that turns out to be caused by a stroke.
- Fever and chills from a deadly infection.
- Lumps, bleeding and other symptoms that turn out to be from a cancer.
Our firm has experience in a large variety of malpractice cases related to misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose. Patients can feel particularly betrayed when a long-time trusted doctor has failed to diagnose them correctly.
Some advice to help prevent misdiagnosis is set out in our patient safety tips.
Patient Safety Tips to Prevent Misdiagnosis
Correct diagnosis starts with clear communication. To communicate effectively and efficiently with our doctors, the best strategy is to take a list with us to the doctor’s office and leave it with the doctor to become part of the chart. Then we should be sure to take home with us another list—the action plan. Having an advocate-ally with us for the visit is another key element for clear communication and understanding. Read more…
A True Story of Misdiagnosis Malpractice – When the Doctor Didn’t Listen to the Patient
Our client Meagan Moran (not her real name) was in many ways a model patient. A bright, cheerful, sandy-haired woman in her mid-forties, Meagan had achieved a master’s degree in health administration and had run two busy doctor’s offices, even helping her orthopedic. Read more…
Consult with an Experienced Malpractice Attorney
If you believe you or a family member has been seriously injured from medical malpractice, medical error, or neglect by a doctor, hospital, nurse, clinic, nursing home or other health care provider, you may want to click here to contact an experienced medical malpractice attorney for a free evaluation of your case. You can also email us at info@patrickmalonelaw.com or call us at 202-742-1500 or 888-625-6635 toll-free. We will respond within 24 hours. There is no charge for our initial consultation.
