Toledo Medical Misdiagnosis Lawyer

Medical misdiagnosis is considered any situation where a doctor or medical professional diagnoses some specific conditions and it turns out that the doctor was incorrect in their diagnosis. To file a claim, an individual and a qualified medical malpractice attorney can look at whether the doctor departed from the standard of care by making a misdiagnosis. A Toledo medical misdiagnosis lawyer can help you find the necessary evidence before pursuing damages.

However, if the standard of care was that an MRI, CAT scan, blood work, or something should have been ordered and the doctor failed to meet the standard of care according to the correct diagnostic testing, then that may be a departure from the standard of care. If eventually the correct diagnosis was made, a person’s damages are really what resulted from the time period of the misdiagnosis to the time period of the correct diagnosis.

If the child was paralyzed or suffered a permanent condition as a result of the six months or one-year time lapse of the misdiagnosis than that would be their damages. If there was not any damage because of the delay, then there could have been malpractice but the case is not worth pursuing because there were not any damages.

Understanding the Severity of Misdiagnosis

The harm caused by misdiagnosis could be death or loss of chance. In a missed cancer diagnosis situation where a person had lung cancer it was misdiagnosed, and six months later they find out, the issue becomes what are the chances that the person’s life could have been saved with a correct initial diagnosis versus the diagnosis six months later. Toledo medical misdiagnosis lawyers know that there may be one expert that can say clearly the person could have been saved or there is an 85 percent chance based on the medical ligature.

What are Acceptable Medical Mistakes?

If the doctor met the standard of care at the time based on the information available to them, then it was an honest mistake. If the doctor did not meet the standard of care, but there were no long-term damages as a result of the delay in the correct diagnosis, then it may have been medical negligence but there is no resulting harm.

Common Forms of Misdiagnosis

Some common forms of misdiagnosis in a child injury could be a delay in determining cerebral palsy, a Thyroid condition, a cancer diagnosis, or a hearing problem. In those situations, it comes down to the harm of the delay referred to as a loss of chance, meaning did the delay cause permanent harm and how serious is that permanent harm. That would be how a person would determine whether or not it would be cost beneficial to pursue the claim.

Potential Misdiagnosis Prevention

In order to prevent the situation of misdiagnosis a Toledo medical misdiagnosis lawyer would suggest making sure that the treating doctor is aware of prior medical history. If the parents feel that they are not happy with the initial diagnosis or not comfortable with the treating doctor, they should get a second opinion. Getting a second opinion makes all the sense in the world, especially if a person is dealing with a small child.

Sometimes there are situations with brain damages, some heart conditions, meningitis, and a form of cancer. If there is sepsis, it would be the type of conditions that potentially could be life-threatening where the child could end up with a permanent debilitating illness as a result of that misdiagnosis.

Importance of an Attorney

Toledo medical misdiagnosis lawyers know claims often takes a long period of time to obtain certified copies of all the appropriate records. It takes a long period of time in a normal situation, but if a person is pursuing records and the medical provider perceives that perhaps they committed malpractice, it is going to be even a longer period of time since the medical provider is potentially going to delay releasing those records. The attorney may be aware of who the tough experts in the area are in that condition and may be able to offer them a good link to a second opinion that can better treat the existing problem.