Pittsburgh Misdiagnosis Or Failure To Diagnose Lawyer

It may be possible to assert a legal claim for compensation for misdiagnosis or a failure to diagnose. To have a viable legal claim, it will be necessary to prove that the misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose was caused by someone’s negligence.

To prove a legal claim for misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose, it is necessary to establish the four elements of negligence. First, you will need to establish that the person or entity whom you are asserting your claim against owed you a duty of care. You will also need to show that this person or entity breached the applicable standard of care in your case; the standard of care is usually defined as the acts or conduct that a reasonable medical professional of similar training and experience would undertake under the same circumstances. You will further need to show that your misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose caused you to suffer some injury or harm, and that you incurred some compensable damages

Misdiagnosis could be the result of medical malpractice if your treating medical professional failed to do things that another medical professional of similar experience and training would have done in your case. Unfortunately, medicine is a complicated science, and it is possible for a medical professional to make no mistakes and still misdiagnose or fail to diagnose a condition; in that case, a misdiagnosis may not be considered medical malpractice.

If you believe that you have been misdiagnosed, it is important that you seek a second opinion from another medical professional. A different perspective on your symptoms can lead to the correct diagnosis. You should also speak to an experienced medical malpractice attorney about your case. You may have a potential claim for compensation if your misdiagnosis was the result of medical malpractice.

In Pennsylvania, any medical malpractice lawsuit, such as a lawsuit for a claim of misdiagnosis, must be accompanied by a “certificate of merit”. This certificate will include a statement from a medical expert stating that the expert has reviewed your case and has concluded that there is a reasonable probability that your misdiagnosis was the result of medical malpractice.

Misdiagnosis is unfortunately all too frequent an occurrence. According to a study by the Mayo Clinic of patients who sought second opinions, only 12 percent of patients were correctly diagnosed by their primary care providers, while over 20 percent of patients were misdiagnosed and 66 percent of patients required some change in details to their original diagnosis.

The National Academy of Medicine defines diagnostic error as the failure to (1) establish an accurate and timely explanation of the patient’s health problem(s) or (2) communicate that explanation to the patient.

Some of the most common causes of misdiagnosis include the medical professional’s failure to obtain the full and accurate medical history of the patient, lack of time to thoroughly complete the diagnostic process, ordering the wrong tests or misinterpreting tests, and failure to include all possible diagnoses (including the correct diagnosis) in the differential diagnosis.

Although doctors are most commonly sued for misdiagnosis as they are the medical professionals most commonly involved in the diagnostic process, other individuals can be sued for misdiagnosis if their negligence leads to a misdiagnosis. These individuals include nurses, physician’s assistants, radiology technicians, and laboratory technicians. It may also be possible to sue the hospitals or facilities who employ these professionals pursuant to employer liability.

If you decide to file a lawsuit to pursue a misdiagnosis claim, you have a limited period to file your lawsuit. In Pennsylvania, this period, known as the statute of limitations, is two years from the date on which you discover the injury you suffered from your misdiagnosis, or seven years from the date of treatment, whichever occurs first. A child who suffers from misdiagnosis has seven years from the date of treatment or their 20th birthday, whichever occurs later, to file a misdiagnosis suit.

If you decide to pursue a claim for compensation for a misdiagnosis, you can expect that we will work diligently to obtain a full and fair monetary recovery for you. Oftentimes we are able to settle your claim without you ever needing to set foot in a courtroom. If it becomes necessary to file a lawsuit in your claim, there will be an extended period, known as discovery, where we exchange evidence with the other side and take depositions from relevant witnesses. Although some misdiagnosis cases can be resolved in a matter of months, it can take a couple of years before a case makes it all the way to trial.

You may be entitled to receive compensation for various types of damages that you suffer. At a minimum, you may be entitled to be compensated for the additional medical expenses that you have had to incur as a result of your misdiagnosis. If your misdiagnosis causes you to miss work, you may also be entitled to recover your lost wages or income. And if your misdiagnosis causes you to undergo additional pain and suffering beyond that which would normally be caused by your condition (such as prolonging your recovery time or requiring you to undergo more intense or painful treatment), you may be entitled to pain and suffering damages. You may also be entitled to recover damages for the loss of quality of life caused by suffering and harm from your misdiagnosis.