In recent years, missed or mistaken diagnosis has become a leading cause of medical malpractice claims in the United States. Although filing a claim for injuries won’t erase the time that has been lost, the physical damage that has been done, or the emotional stress you have endured, doing so helps ensure that negligent medical professionals are held accountable. This may deter similar acts in the future. A medical malpractice injury award can also help you cover medical bills and the cost of future medical care, reimburse you for your lost income, and compensate you for the pain, suffering, and mental anguish that you would not have experienced but for the hospital’s negligence.
Four elements must exist for your wrong diagnosis injury claim to be viable.
Duty of Care
Mistaken diagnosis attorneys will need to prove that the medical provider owed you a duty of care to provide you with the standard of care expected of a medical provider in the same or a similar situation when you were diagnosed or a diagnosis was missed. The relationship is generally created when the medical professional agrees to provide services requested by the patient.
Breach of Duty
To establish breach of duty, your medical malpractice attorney must show that the healthcare professional deviated from the standard of care that was expected through negligent acts or omissions. This might include misdiagnosing your condition, ignoring signs or symptoms of a condition and thereby missing or delaying the diagnosis of your condition, or diagnosing you with a condition that you did not have.
Causation
Your mistaken diagnosis attorney must demonstrate that a link exists between the healthcare provider’s negligence and your injuries. If the doctor missed diagnosing heart disease, for example, but your condition worsened because your cancer treatment failed to work, the physician cannot be held liable for damages related to your cancer. The missed diagnosis must have played a role in causing your injuries.
Damages
Significant harm must have been caused to you because of the medical care provider’s missed, delayed, or mistaken diagnosis. If a doctor’s misdiagnosis could have caused you to be injured, but no injury happened, the physician cannot be held liable because of no damages.
