Philadelphia Failure to Diagnose Lawyer
Whether your primary care doctor failed to diagnose you with heart disease, an emergency room physician failed to diagnose your heart attack, an oncologist failed to diagnose your cancer in a timely manner, you may be eligible for a medical malpractice claim. Healthcare providers have an obligation to meet a specific standard of care when treating patients, and before treatment can begin, a proper diagnosis must be made. Unfortunately, failure to diagnose, or delayed diagnosis, is one of the most common causes of medical negligence. Our Philadelphia failure to diagnose lawyer at The Villari Firm, PLLC is prepared to delve into the facts of your case, and seek answers when the truth is being obscured by hospital or other health care administrators. We will help you hold the at-fault party responsible for all of your damages.
Failure to Diagnose
Negligence can fall on the shoulders of primary care doctors, ER doctors, surgeons, and essentially all other healthcare providers. Failure to diagnose a patient with a medical condition is often due to one or more of the following healthcare provider failures:
- The doctor misinterprets a patient’s symptoms
- The doctor ignores a patient’s complaints or concerns
- A hospital turns a patient away before diagnostic testing
- The doctor fails to order diagnostic testing, or orders the wrong type of testing
- The doctor fails to read or interpret the test results
- A primary care doctor fails to refer the patient to a specialist
- Diagnostic test error or malfunction
- Failure to take into account pre-existing conditions
- Failure to take into account the patient’s medical or family history
- There is confusion in the emergency room, possibly due to short staffing
- Hospital or clinic mixes up a patient’s chart with another patient’s
- False negative test
A failure to diagnose comes down to a lack of attention, experience, or knowledge, all of which the standard of care requires. Practicing outside of the standard of care, when it results in an injury to a patient, is legal grounds for a medical malpractice claim. Modern medicine is so effective primarily because of our ability to diagnose illnesses before they become untreatable. This is particularly true of cancer, heart disease, heart attack, stroke, and other life-threatening conditions that require Swift intervention.
Serious Conditions That Require Proper Diagnosis
There are hundreds of injuries, illnesses, and other medical conditions that require prompt and accurate diagnosis for quick treatment. Examples of some of the most commonly misdiagnosed, or completely undiagnosed, conditions include the following:
- Heart attack
- Storke
- Pulmonary embolism
- Sepsis
- Fibromyalgia
- Lyme disease
- Brain hemorrhage
- Colorectal cancer
- Lung cancer
- Breast cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Bladder cancer
Contact a Philadelphia Failure to Diagnose Lawyer Today
If a healthcare provider failed to diagnose you with an injury or illness, you may be able to hold them accountable for your damages, including medical expenses, future medical expenses, pain and suffering, lost wages, lost earning capacity, loss of joy of life, and much more. To discuss your case with one of our experienced Philadelphia failure to diagnose lawyers, contact The Villari Firm today at 215-372-8889 for a free consultation.