It’s not always easy to think about, but even doctors make mistakes. In fact, misdiagnosis – diagnosing a patient’s condition incorrectly – is much more common than you think. About 40 percent of the time, healthcare providers misdiagnose patients. Some of the most common serious misdiagnosed conditions include the following:
- Cancer
- Stroke
- Lupus
- Parkinson’s disease
- Multiple sclerosis
When medical malpractice becomes reality
Sometimes, doctors don’t discover your true illness until it has impacted your health gravely. For example, they miss a cancer diagnosis even though you have been seen for symptoms that indicated a cancer screening was necessary. This is a scenario where suing for medical malpractice is legitimate. So is if a doctor missed signs you were having a stroke and now you’ve been permanently disabled or paralyzed because of it. Basically, if a doctor didn’t diagnose your condition correctly or didn’t reach a correct diagnosis quickly and that action impacted your long-term health, you may want to file a medical malpractice suit.
Consulting an attorney
If you feel you may be the victim of medical malpractice, you need to consult an experienced medical malpractice attorney. You should not agree to any insurance settlement offer without consulting an attorney.
An attorney can best evaluate if your case might be worth more than the insurance company is offering you. An attorney can help you seek not only compensation for medical costs, but for how your life was impacted or shortened by your pain and suffering.
Sadly, victims of medical malpractice, especially in situations dealing with deadly conditions such as cancer, stroke or lupus, do suffer and sometimes see their lives cut short unfairly. Filing a medical malpractice suit is one way to compensate for that.