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Have you or a family member been affected by a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis by a medical professional? When you or a loved one has become ill, injured, or dies due to a lack of treatment, late treatment, or the wrong type of treatment, you have the right to file a claim and get compensated for your losses.
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Your misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis may be a part of a medical malpractice claim, and you may be entitled to receive significant compensation for the damages that have occurred. A top DC medical malpractice lawyer at Regan Zambri Long PLLC can help you claim compensation for damages that you are entitled to by law.
Our Washington, DC misdiagnosis lawyers have been helping injury victims throughout the DC Metro area for more than three decades. With a registered nurse on staff, we have the expertise needed to determine when the diagnosis should have been made. It’s important to know what your legal options are in medical malpractice cases. We offer a free initial consultation to medical malpractice victims in Washington, DC, Maryland and Virginia.
According to a study published in the peer-reviewed journal BML Quality & Safety, each year approximately 12 million people who are treated in outpatient clinics and emergency rooms across the US are victims of misdiagnosis. Researchers found that roughly half of these patients were seriously injured because of this negligence.
What causes a misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis? Several factors can lead to a misdiagnosis, including but not limited to:
To make a proper diagnosis, diagnostic testing will be needed. This gives the medical professional an accurate picture of what’s happening with the patient. But sometimes, that testing does not occur until it’s too late. There are various reasons why testing doesn’t happen – from the patient’s insurance company not covering the cost to the doctor believing they know the problem without testing to confirm.
Sometimes a physician does not have the proper knowledge to recognize the symptoms of certain diseases. So, instead of asking for additional testing, they may try to ignore the symptoms or tell the patient that it’s nothing to worry about. In some cases, the medical professional may have asked for testing but doesn’t know how to read the results, leading to a misdiagnosis.
Doctors are in high demand and often see multiple patients at once, which means they can’t spend a lot of time with one patient. According to a study published in the journal Health Services Research, the average length of a visit with a physician is 17 minutes. Unfortunately, this doesn’t leave a lot of time to get a complete medical history, discuss a patient’s symptoms, review test results, and make a proper diagnosis.
Medical professionals are human and can make diagnostic errors. Not all mistakes are made with negligence or malicious intent. However, a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis claim should be filed when the doctor or medical professional acted negligently or had malicious intentions while making a misdiagnosis or late diagnosis. It causes harm, injury, or death.
Several requirements must be met to prove negligence or fault in a misdiagnosis lawsuit, including:
When a doctor or medical professional has caused you or a loved one harm due to incorrect treatment, late treatment, or lack of treatment, you can pursue a medical malpractice lawsuit and claim damages that occurred as a result of the malpractice.
Common damages that occur in misdiagnosis or late diagnosis medical malpractice cases include but are not limited to:
Any type of medical malpractice claim can be complex and you will need a top DC medical malpractice lawyer at Regan Zambri Long to guide you through the process. We will build a strong case against those responsible
A misdiagnosis occurs when a medical professional says that the patient had a medical condition they did not have. For example, a doctor diagnoses someone with breast cancer. After extensive and painful treatments, it is revealed that the mass found in the person’s breast was a noncancerous cyst.
A delayed diagnosis, also known as a missed diagnosis, means the medical professional does not diagnose the patient with a condition, despite presenting with signs and symptoms. An example of a delayed diagnosis would be a patient showing signs of early dementia for years yet was never diagnosed until the symptoms became too severe to ignore.
Since a misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or lack of diagnosis falls under medical malpractice, the Washington DC statute of limitations or applicable local statute of limitations for the jurisdiction applies. It is important to consult with a lawyer as soon as possible because the statute begins as soon as the malpractice is discovered. In addition, these factors are very fact-specific. For that reason, you should consult with an attorney as soon as you have reason to believe that your or a family member may have been a victim of medical malpractice.
Outside of these periods, the victim or the victim’s family members will likely not be able to collect compensation.
Any condition can be misdiagnosed by a negligent doctor or another medical professional. Some of the most common types of misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis cases that we handle include but are not limited to:
No matter the type of misdiagnosis or late diagnosis that has dramatically affected you and your loved ones, a medical malpractice lawyer at Regan Zambri Long can help you build the strongest case possible to get the compensation you deserve.
It depends on where you live in the DC Metro area:
The physician can be sued for your misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis in most cases. However, there may be times when other parties may be held liable as well. These include nurses, lab technicians, medical specialists, and the medical facility.
