Indiana Medical Misdiagnosis Attorney
Representing Injured Patients in Indiana
Our Medical Misdiagnosis Lawyers Can Help with Your Claim
A missed or inaccurate diagnosis can have a significant impact on the course of a patient’s treatment and his or her ability to recover. Doctors, hospitals, and medical specialists can be held liable for medical bills, lost wages, pain and suffering, and more when diagnostic errors delay treatment and cause a patient’s condition to worsen. The Indiana medical misdiagnosis attorneys at Langer & Langer are advocates for victims who have suffered injuries because of a missed, delayed, or incorrect diagnosis. Let our legal team help you recover.
Contact the Indiana mistaken diagnosis attorneys at Langer & Langer to learn more about filing a claim. Call 219-246-4759 or contact us online.
How Common Is Medical Misdiagnosis in the United States?
Approximately 12 million people are misdiagnosed every year in the United States. That translates to roughly 5% of adult patients who receive inpatient or outpatient medical care in clinics, hospitals, and doctors’ offices.
Recent studies reveal that 88% of patients who seek a second opinion receive a different diagnosis. In nearly 28% of cases involving diagnostic errors, patients suffer life-altering or life-threatening injuries. An estimated 40,000 to 80,000 patients die each year because of a missed, mistaken, or delayed diagnosis.
Common Effects of Diagnostic Errors
- Delayed Treatments
- Emotional Stress
- Increased Medical Bills
- Increased Physical Pain
- Needless Suffering
- Poorer Prognosis
- Unnecessary Treatments
- Wrongful Death
How Does a Medical Misdiagnosis Happen?
When something is not right with our health, we count on medical professionals to tell us what is happening. They have access to advanced technology, training and educational materials, expert opinions, and high-tech imaging devices to help them determine the cause of our woes. Unfortunately, their diagnoses are accurate less than 90% of the time. So what goes wrong in the other 10% of cases?
- Communication Errors
- Failure to Check Family History
- Ignored or Minimized Symptoms
- Inadequate Follow-up on Test Results
- Inadequate Supervision
- Inadequate Training
- Medical Equipment Failures
- Misinterpreted Test Results
- Misinterpreting Imaging
- Misuse of Medical Equipment
Who Can Be Held Liable for a Wrong Diagnosis?
It is not uncommon for a team of medical professionals to participate in diagnosing a patient’s condition, especially if a rare or life-threatening disease is suspected. Although liability for injuries caused by a misdiagnosis may fall on a single medical professional, it is common for mistaken diagnosis lawyers to help victims file claims against multiple parties. These include, but are not limited to:
- Doctors
- Emergency Room Physicians
- Hospital Staff
- Hospitals
- Lab Technicians
- Medical Device Manufacturers
- Nurses
- Oncologists
- Physician’s Assistants
- Radiologists
- Specialists
- Surgeons
Should You File an Injury Claim with Wrong Diagnosis Attorneys?
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.
Medical Misdiagnosis FAQs
What is the time limit to file a lawsuit for mistaken diagnosis in Indiana?
Patients in Indiana typically have just two years from the date of the occurrence. But, a minor less than age six has until the minor’s eighth birthday to file a claim.
While no malpractice attorney can guarantee the amount you will receive by filing a mistaken diagnosis claim, our lawyers will evaluate the amount and type of medical treatment needed because of the misdiagnosis, your resulting medical bills, pain and suffering, and lost income to provide you with an estimate.
Yes. If the radiologist misinterpreted the imaging or failed to report your condition, and you suffered injury because of it, you may be able to sue him or her for negligence.
Call the mistaken diagnosis lawyers at Langer & Langer at 219-246-4759 or contact us online for a case review