Failure to Diagnose Illness Malpractice Lawyers Serving Chicago, IL

A delayed diagnosis or failure to diagnose an illness or make the correct diagnosis is one of the most harmful forms of medical malpractice. Unfortunately, there may be instances where doctors stray from the treatments that they would prefer to provide due to the influence of insurance companies carrying their medical malpractice coverage.

Insurance companies can create an obstacle between a doctor and his or her ability to provide a patient with the best care possible. A doctor's failure to diagnose an illness promptly may result from this influence.

Patients suffering from a severe condition or life-threatening disease might only have limited time to receive treatments to ensure their healing or survival. Doctors must deliver the most effective treatments for an illness within this time that could good worse in weeks, days, or hours.

If the medical provider fails to provide the standard of care through a medical misdiagnosis, the patient's condition could degrade significantly by a lack of medical treatment. Without much need care, a severe medical condition could end in wrongful death.

Hiring a Chicago Medical Diagnosis Error Lawyer

Those who believe that they suffered an injury or illness due to a doctor's failure to diagnose an illness might have a legal remedy. A Chicago medical malpractice attorney with experience in failing to diagnose illness cases helps individuals who have been harmed by a doctor's medical malpractice.

Contact Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC today to speak with an attorney who can assist you with your medical malpractice claim. Our medical malpractice lawyers currently represent clients throughout Illinois, including in the following localities: Cook County, DuPage County, Kane County, Lake County, Will County, Winnebago County, Peoria County, Bolingbrook, Arlington Heights, Aurora, Elgin, Joliet, Naperville, Orland Park, Schaumburg, Springfield, Wheaton, and Waukegan.

Diagnosis Errors by Healthcare Professionals in Chicago Medical Malpractice Cases

patients must be aware that Doctors can often fail to diagnose an illness accurately. Medical professionals Might misdiagnose or delay to diagnose because they lack proper diagnostic training. The doctor may be under the influence of pain medication, alcohol, or other harmful substances at the time of an appointment.

Sometimes, errors are a result of the doctor's recklessness or carelessness. The physician might incorrectly interpret the patient's past medical record and test results. The common types of medical malpractice that result from negligence might include:

• Failure to provide adequate testing for a patient
• Failure to run a mammogram or biopsy test for patients at risk for breast cancer
• Failure to consider the context of a patient's medical history
• Failure to investigate a patient's medical situation for lung cancer for heart attack
• Failure to order necessary tests for a patient
• Misinterpretation of the symptoms that a patient experienced
• Misdiagnosis of a patient's current symptoms
• Failure to perform due diligence in ensuring that a patient's file and medical records are correct

Many parties can be at fault when a patient has not received the proper diagnosis of an injury. A patient might sue the hospital entity if there was inadequate training for staff in the facilities.

The injured party might also sue the doctor, nurse, or other specialists who oversaw handling the patient's file.

Medical Diagnosis Error and Delay FAQs

Proving Negligence of the Doctor in Failure to Diagnose Medical Conditions

Proving that the doctor was negligent in their failure to diagnose is a challenge in resolving an Illinois medical malpractice lawsuit. To make this case, a personal injury attorney must show that a doctor-patient relationship existed at the time of the appointment, procedure, or hospital stay.

Additionally, a medical malpractice lawyer must analyze the facts of the case to prove that a doctor did not provide treatment in a reasonably skillful manner. The lawyer might compare the defendant's failure to diagnose with the medical skills of other doctors in the community to determine whether the defendant's conduct met professional standards.

Ultimately, the Chicago medical malpractice lawyer must show that a patient suffered an actual injury as the result of the doctor's negligence. Test results might reveal medical errors.

There might be evidence that a patient developed a weakened condition or illness because the doctor failed to diagnose or otherwise developed a worsened condition, and a doctor will need to prove this to a jury.

Sample Failure to Diagnose Malpractice Awards & Settlements in Illinois

$1,000,000 Settlement; Failure to Diagnose Malpractice; Sangamon County, Illinois

A fifty-eight-year-old female patient visited her health care provider due to her loss of appetite, weight gain, an inability to stop vomiting. The doctor examined her, evaluated her combination of symptoms, and then discharged her.

The doctor failed to alert her of anything serious, including the electrolyte imbalance it was later determined that she had been experiencing. Without proper treatment due to the misdiagnosis, the damage to the woman's brain eventually killed her just two months later.

She accumulated $100,000 in medical bills before her death. Her husband and children sued the doctor for wrongful death. The court documents claimed the physician was negligent in his failure to diagnose her illness, which stopped her from getting medical care, which could have saved her life.

The family sought compensation for their pain, grief, and other losses. The two sides settled for a reported $1 million in a negotiated out of court settlement.

$8,000,000 Verdict; Failure to Diagnose Malpractice; Cook County, Illinois

A patient with cellulitis, vomiting, diabetes, and nausea visited the emergency room numerous times in early January of 2009. Her doctors prescribed medications to alleviate the problem.

However, her doctors ordered x-rays that revealed she had contracted pneumonia that created several symptoms, including shortness of breath. She returned to the doctors' office a few days later, where the staff performed an EGD and a GI consult but failed to diagnose her condition.

She died while in their care during that visit. Her lawyers sued the healthcare providers and facilities that were responsible. Their lawsuit alleged that the defendants' failure to diagnose, improper treatments, and inadequate policies caused her death.

The defendants push back on all these charges saying that she did not display any evident signs of pneumonia. The matter was heard in front of a judge and jury, likely due to many factual discrepancies.

A jury awarded the plaintiffs $8 million for lost society, compensation, and grief.

$4,000,000 Settlement; Failure to Diagnose Malpractice; Champaign County, Illinois

Parents brought their five-year-old child to the Champaign Hospital emergency room because she had a fever and rash. Doctors admitted her to the facility where she stayed for almost a week.

During that time, the staff failed to diagnose her condition of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever. Also, they failed to diagnose and interpret the child's lab results correctly. Consequently, her doctors did not discover that she had an infection from a tick bite.

The child succumbed to her condition after going into shock during her sixth-day hospital stay due to the facility's failure to diagnose or delay to diagnose. Her surviving parents and siblings filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the doctors and hospital in Champaign County court.

The documents alleged the defendants' failure to diagnose and other negligent acts directly caused the little girl's death. While the defendant's reply to the lawsuit, they did not present the merits and instead chose to resolve the case with the family for $4 million.

Seeking Legal Help From Chicago Medical Diagnosis Error Attorneys When a Doctor Fails to Diagnose a Medical Condition That Causes the Death of a Loved One

Are you, or a loved one, the victim of a failure to diagnose a problem that degraded your medical condition? Was your loved one the victim of a wrongful death caused by medical malpractice?

Our law firm is available now to help and power you to move forward in your life. Get in touch with the medical malpractice attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers LLC today at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone call) to schedule a free consultation.

We accept all medical malpractice diagnostic error cases through contingency fee agreements. This arrangement ensures you do not pay for legal services until after we have successfully obtained financial compensation on your behalf.

All your discussions with our experienced Chicago diagnosis attorneys will remain confidential through an attorney-client relationship. Please do not send sensitive information to our law office in a text message, email, or voicemail.

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Resources:

ABC News Physicians Malpractice Risk Claims