People trust their doctors will quickly identify any injury or illness they have, and offer a treatment or management solution to make you feel better. Unfortunately, sometimes health care professionals make diagnostic mistakes, which can result in a delayed diagnosis. Because the key to recovery can be an early diagnosis that allows you to take advantage of early treatments, any delay in your diagnosis can risk your recovery.
If you believe your doctor should have diagnosed your condition sooner, our medical malpractice attorneys can help determine if you have sufficient grounds to pursue a lawsuit. Our Fort Washington delayed diagnosis lawyers at Friedman Schuman Layser have experience all across Pennsylvania with managing diagnostic mistake cases.
When Does a Delay in Diagnosis Become Malpractice?
Malpractice happens when a medical professional fails to provide the appropriate standard of care that another provider with a similar background and training would have provided under similar circumstances. In some circumstances, a delay in making an accurate diagnosis can constitute medical malpractice.
Below the Standard of Care
For a successful case, you must show that your physician’s care fell below the appropriate standard because they should have done something differently to determine your diagnosis. For instance, our attorneys can work with medical professionals who could present evidence showing that they would have ordered additional testing.
Proof of Harm
You must also show that the avoidable delay in receiving your diagnosis resulted in actual harm, which a timely diagnosis could have prevented. A delayed diagnosis can result in additional pain and extra medical expenses because the illness progressed to a more serious condition before being treated. Sadly, some delayed diagnoses allow an illness to develop to the point where it is no longer treatable.
Our Fort Washington attorneys understand that life-altering consequences can occur after a diagnostic delay. We can work with your family to build a solid claim for fair compensation that includes coverage for your additional medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, and other losses.
Reasons Why Medical Diagnoses Can Have Delays
Doctors and other health care providers might fail to make timely diagnoses for many reasons, including the following:
- Failure to recognize the symptoms or signs of an illness, or a mix-up of symptoms of two medical conditions
- An oversight or dismissal of a patient’s symptoms
- Failure to administer the proper tests based on a patient’s symptoms
- Mistakes in a laboratory, such as contaminating a sample or mixing up the results of two patients’ tests
- Misinterpretation of test results or lab work or a failure to order follow-up tests based on the patient’s test results
- Failure to refer a patient to an appropriate specialist who is more familiar with the types of symptoms
- Lack of communication between the patients’ health care providers
- Inadequate staffing in a medical office or hospital
Our local lawyers in Fort Washington can thoroughly investigate what happened to learn why there was a delay in your diagnosis. If there is a viable claim, we handle your claim through to the end.
Contact a Delayed Diagnosis Attorney in Fort Washington
Getting a timely diagnosis can sometimes mean the difference between a quick recovery and a life-threatening situation. If you suspect your health care provider waited too long to diagnose your condition, you deserve help from Friedman Schuman Layser.
Contact our Fort Washington delayed diagnosis lawyers to get committed advocacy during this difficult time.