Is Cancer Misdiagnosis Considered Medical Malpractice?

Depending on the circumstances, the misdiagnosis of a serious illness like cancer can cause serious harm or wrongful death, if the illness progresses beyond effective treatment. Often, failure to diagnose cancer is the most serious type of misdiagnosis case.

A misdiagnosis case is a situation where a patient, for instance, should have been diagnosed with a serious illness, and it’s not diagnosed in time. So, for a good example is, the failure to diagnose cancer. That’s a misdiagnosis case. If the physician should have diagnosed the cancer a year earlier, maybe by ordering an MRI. but didn’t order the test. Or, the test was ordered and it wasn’t interpreted correctly. And as a result, the patient’s condition was not diagnosed for a year, that’s a misdiagnosis case.

The law firm has handled a substantial number of misdiagnosis cases in medical malpractice situations. Unfortunately, we’ve seen a fair number of breast cancer cases. Where the physicians have either not ordered mammograms or the mammograms have been misread, and, as a result, the patient’s underlying condition goes undiagnosed for several years. I’ve also seen failure to diagnose prostate cancer cases. Failure to diagnose lung cancer cases. Failure to diagnose brain cancer when MRIs aren’t ordered. Those are examples of misdiagnosis cases. For more information call (202) 960-4596 or use our contact form below.

About the Author

Patrick M. Regan, Esq.

Patrick Regan is a board certified personal injury lawyer and a founding partner at Regan Zambri Long. His practice is devoted to helping those who suffered catastrophic injuries in car accidents, truck accidents, Metro accidents, and medical malpractice. Over his nearly 40-year career, Patrick has obtained some of the most significant jury verdicts in the history of Washington, DC on behalf of injured victims. Patrick is licensed to practice law in Washington, DC, Virginia, and Maryland. He received his B.A. at Hamilton College and his J.D. at the Columbus School of Law at the Catholic University of America.