Is Cancer Misdiagnosis Common?
There are harrowing stories of people who have fell victim to medical misdiagnosis. It is hard enough to be told you have cancer or another serious illness, but it can much worse to be told you are fine when you are not.
Being misdiagnosed as healthy when in reality you are not could lead to delays in treatment that might have helped earlier along in your illness. You could also be misdiagnosed as having one illness and receive treatment for that, but instead you actually have a different illness for which your treatment does nothing or worse — exacerbates the problem.
Substantial statistics on the matter have yet to be founded, but a study done by researchers did yield an ominous result. Researchers at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland reviewed tissue samples from 6,000 cancer patients across the country and found that up to 1 out of 5 cancer cases were misclassified. These misclassifications affect a patient’s care in terms of type of treatment and when or how much they should receive.
Unfortunately, there are a handful of illnesses that tend to get misdiagnosed more so than others. Those include, but are not limited to:
It is never easy to learn you have been misdiagnosed, especially when the original diagnosis was most likely given by a medical professional. When it comes down to it, that same medical professional may be liable for any damages that came as a result of the misdiagnosis.
If you are a victim of misdiagnosis you might have a medical malpractice case and your hands and should look for a knowledgeable lawyer to help build your case.
In order to meet the criteria of medical malpractice, you must show the medical professional did not provide the accepted standard of medical care. In addition, you need to prove an injury was sustained, a doctor-patient relationship existed and there was cause and effect between the negligent care and your injury.
In order to prove those things, it is important for you to have an experience Pennsylvania medical malpractice attorney in your corner. The attorneys at Berger Lagnese & Paul, LLC are experienced with handling the many different types of conditions often cited in medical malpractice cases. Call Berger Lagnese & Paul, LLC at 412-471-4300 or fill out our convenient online contact form to set up a consultation today.
The articles on this blog are for informative purposes only and are no substitute for legal advice or an attorney/client relationship. If you are seeking legal advice, please contact our law firm directly.