Decatur Medical Misdiagnosis Lawyers Fighting For Your Rights
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Doctors need to diagnose exactly what’s wrong with you or a loved one as early as possible. Otherwise, your illness or injury could get worse due to not being treated in time. Unfortunately, some doctors make mistakes when diagnosing what’s wrong. When they do, the consequences can be serious, including more serious injuries or illnesses, or even death in certain circumstances.
That’s why it’s critical that you take strong legal action if you or a family member has been harmed due to a diagnosing error. That’s why we want to meet with you at Kurle Justus, LLC, right away. Our Georgia medical misdiagnosis attorneys have years of experience handling complicated medical malpractice cases.
Our experience has taught us exactly what evidence to look for when investigating medical misdiagnosis cases. One of our attorneys even worked in the healthcare field for 10 years as a respiratory therapist before becoming a lawyer. As a result, we leave no stone unturned when researching these cases. You can count on us to work tirelessly for you.
What are common medical misdiagnosis cases?
Medical misdiagnosis cases can cover a wide range. Some of the most common cases we deal with at our law firm often involve:
- Delay in diagnosis
- Mistakes made involving laboratory tests, including:
- Testing the wrong test samples.
- Contaminating the test samples.
- Accidentally switching test results with another patient.
- Misreading test results, which may include:
- X-rays
- MRI tests
- Blood tests
- CT scans
- Failure to perform standard medical tests
- Misidentifying symptoms, resulting in the wrong treatment or no medical care
Whatever the circumstances of your medical misdiagnosis, our legal team can help you hold the medical professionals who made a mistake accountable for their actions.
When is misdiagnosis considered medical malpractice?
A misdiagnosis doesn't automatically mean that medical malpractice has occurred. For a misdiagnosis to be classified as malpractice, a few key conditions need to be met. First, there must be an established doctor-patient relationship. This means the doctor was formally providing care to the patient. Second, the doctor must have been negligent, meaning they failed to diagnose the patient correctly in a way that a reasonable doctor would not have. Essentially, it’s about whether the misdiagnosis happened because the doctor didn’t meet the standard of care expected from a similar professional.
Additionally, it must be shown that the misdiagnosis caused harm to the patient. This means demonstrating that the incorrect diagnosis led to a negative health outcome or made the patient’s condition worse. Lastly, the patient needs to specify the damages suffered due to the misdiagnosis, such as physical injuries, emotional distress, or financial losses directly related to the misdiagnosis error.
Types of diagnostic errors
When it comes to medical misdiagnosis, there are three types of diagnostic errors that are particularly concerning: missed diagnoses, delayed diagnosis, and incorrect diagnosis.
Missed diagnoses: A missed diagnosis occurs when a healthcare provider completely fails to identify a patient's condition. The condition is overlooked or dismissed, leaving the patient without the necessary treatment in a timely manner.
Delayed diagnosis: A delayed diagnosis happens when there is a significant delay in identifying a medical condition. The doctor eventually arrives at the correct diagnosis, but the delay can cause the patient to suffer from prolonged symptoms, worsened conditions, or reduced treatment options. Early detection is often critical for successful outcomes, so delays can have serious consequences.
Incorrect diagnosis: An incorrect diagnosis is when a doctor diagnoses a patient with the wrong condition. The patient may receive unnecessary or harmful treatments for the wrong illness while the real issue remains untreated. This can lead to worsening health and complications that could have been avoided with a correct diagnosis.
Each of these diagnostic errors can significantly impact a patient's health and may be grounds for a medical malpractice claim if it is shown that the error was due to negligence.
What medical conditions are often misdiagnosed?
While any medical condition can be misdiagnosed, some conditions are often misdiagnosed more than others. These medical conditions include:
- Cancer
- Stroke
- Heart attack
- Heart disease
- Acute coronary syndrome
- Pneumonia
- Pregnancy-related complications
- Birth injuries
- Multiple sclerosis
- Appendicitis
Misdiagnosing such severe and often fatal medical conditions can have serious consequences. That’s why we want to meet with you and explain all the legal options available to you and your family in Georgia.
Failure to recognize related and unrelated conditions
Misdiagnosis often involves the failure to recognize both related and unrelated conditions, which can lead to serious health consequences. When a doctor overlooks a condition connected to the initial diagnosis—like missing kidney disease in a diabetic patient—the treatment may be incomplete and ineffective.
Similarly, if a doctor is too focused on one diagnosis and fails to identify an unrelated issue, such as mistaking a brain tumor for migraines, the patient may experience delays in getting the correct care. These oversights, which are forms of misdiagnosis, can worsen the patient's condition and may be considered medical malpractice if a doctor would have recognized these issues.
Why are medical misdiagnosis cases so complicated?
Medical misdiagnosis injuries or illnesses often turn out to be complicated legal cases. The reasons why include:
- The medical professional who misdiagnosed you or a family member denies doing anything wrong.
- The medical professional claims your injury or illness is unrelated to misdiagnosis error.
- Evidence related to your misdiagnosis error no longer exists or was intentionally destroyed.
- The medical professional’s insurance company denies your medical malpractice claim.
Because the consequences can often be so serious when it comes to misdiagnosis errors, medical professionals, or the hospitals they work for often hire entire teams of lawyers to defend their actions. They do this because the financial impact (medical bills, lost income, lost future income, etc.) can easily add up to thousands or even millions of dollars.
Some law firms avoid challenging cases. We thrive on them. That’s because we believe medical professionals should be held accountable for their actions. If they made a mistake, they should have to pay your medical bills and other related expenses.
It isn’t about the money. That’s not what drives us to work hard every single day. It’s about standing up for the rights of injury victims. It’s about making sure these mistakes don’t happen again. It’s about justice.
What damages can I recover for a medical misdiagnosis claim?
In a medical misdiagnosis claim, a patient may be able to recover several types of damages, which is compensation for financial losses, including:
- Medical expenses: Compensation for the cost of additional medical treatment required due to the misdiagnosis, including hospital stays, surgeries, medications, and ongoing medical care.
- Lost wages: Victims of medical misdiagnosis may be able to be compensated for income lost if the misdiagnosis caused the patient to miss work or if the patient’s ability to work in the future is affected.
- Pain and suffering: Compensation for the physical and emotional distress experienced by the misdiagnosis.
- Loss of enjoyment of life: Damages for the impact on the patient’s quality of life, such as the inability to participate in activities they once enjoyed.
- Wrongful death: If the misdiagnosis led to a patient's death, the family may be able to recover damages for funeral expenses, loss of companionship, and loss of financial support, including lost future income.
Get the help you deserve. Contact us, so you don’t have to suffer in silence.
Don’t wait to take legal action if you or a loved one has been harmed due to a diagnosing error. In Georgia, you only have two years from the date of your injury or illness to file a medical malpractice lawsuit. That deadline (known as the statute of limitations) might seem like a long time, but the longer you wait to take legal action, the harder it often becomes to find the facts that matter for your case.
Make the most of your opportunity for justice. Contact us and schedule your free case evaluation with Kurle Justus, LLC. One of our experienced Georgia medical malpractice lawyers can evaluate your potential case, free of charge. We can meet with you in our Decatur office, in your hospital room, your home, virtually via video chat or wherever’s convenient for you.