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Chicago Medical Misdiagnosis Lawyer
Experienced Failure to Diagnose Illness Malpractice Lawyers
A victim who is injured or developed a preventable illness from being misdiagnosed or due to another health result may have a legal remedy through a civil suit. A medical malpractice attorney can help individuals harmed by a doctor’s negligence or malpractice.
Call (888) 424-5757 to contact the personal injury attorneys at Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC and speak with a misdiagnosis attorney who will work on your behalf and assist you with your malpractice claim.
We offer a no-obligation free consultation to discuss your case.
When Doctors Misdiagnose Medical Conditions
A delayed diagnosis or failure to diagnose an illness or make the correct diagnosis is one of the most harmful forms of malpractice.
Unfortunately, there may be instances where doctors stray from the treatments they would prefer to provide due to insurance companies’ influence carrying their negligence coverage.
Insurance companies can create an obstacle between physicians and their ability to provide patients with the best healthcare possible. A physician misdiagnosing an illness, injury, or cancer promptly may result in life-threatening consequences.
Patients suffering from a severe healthcare problem or life-threatening disease may only have limited time to receive treatments to ensure their healing or survival.
Doctors must deliver the most effective treatments for an illness within a specific time to prevent its worsening in weeks, days, or hours. Any misdiagnosed healthcare problems can be deadly.
A Misdiagnosis Can Cause Serious Harm
If the health care provider fails to provide the standard of care, misdiagnosing the patient's health issues could degrade their well-being significantly by a lack of treatment. Without much-needed treatment, a serious ailment like cancer could result in wrongful death.
Contact Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC today to speak with a misdiagnosis attorney who can assist you with your malpractice claim.
Our Chicago law offices 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.
Call or contact us today.
Diagnosis Errors by Medical Experts in Malpractice Cases
Patients must know that doctors often fail to diagnose an illness accurately. Medical professionals could misdiagnose or delay a diagnosis because they lack proper diagnostic training.
The doctor may be under the influence of pain medication, alcohol, or other harmful substances at an appointment. Sometimes, errors are a result of the doctor's recklessness or carelessness.
The physician might interpret the patient's past health record and test results incorrectly.
The common types of healthcare negligence might include:
- Failure to provide adequate testing for a patient
- Failure to run a mammogram or a biopsy test for patients at risk for breast cancer resulting in a misdiagnosis of cancer
- Failure to consider the context of a patient’s health history
- Failure to investigate a patient’s healthcare situation for lung cancer or heart attack resulting in a cancer misdiagnosis
- Failure to order appropriate tests for a patient
- Misinterpretation of the symptoms that a patient experiences
- Misdiagnosed symptoms
- Failure to perform due diligence in ensuring that a patient’s file and health records are correct
Many parties can be at fault when a patient has not received the proper diagnosis of injuries or a health problem. A patient might sue the hospital entity if there was inadequate training for staff in the facilities.
Often, the injured party will sue the doctor, nurse, or other specialists who were in charge of handling the patient’s file.
Proving Negligence of the Doctor in Medical Misdiagnosis Cases
Proving that the doctor was negligent by a misdiagnosis or medical error is a challenge in resolving Illinois medical malpractice lawsuits. To make this case, a personal injury attorney must show that a doctor-patient relationship existed during the appointment, procedure, or hospital stay.
Additionally, a negligence attorney must analyze the case’s facts 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 other doctors’ skills in the community. The comparison might help determine whether the defendant’s conduct met professional standards.
Ultimately, the Chicago medical negligence lawyer must show that a patient suffered actual injuries due to the doctor’s negligence. Test results might reveal errors.
There might be evidence that a patient developed a weakened ailment or illness due to the doctor’s failure to diagnose or otherwise resulted in a worsened condition, and a doctor will need to prove it to a jury.
Cancer Misdiagnosis
Cancer misdiagnosis continues to be a severe problem in the healthcare field that can create devastating results and consequences. Often, the physician fails to identify cancer through inaccurate diagnostic testing or mistaking one disease for another.
A cancer misdiagnosis can happen as the critical window for providing healing treatment closes. Any missed or delayed diagnosis can cause the condition to worsen, which can result in horrific, life-altering repercussions.
Allowing cancer to progress might cause the person unnecessary emotional and painful health complications. Misdiagnosing cancer is often based on failing to identify common symptoms associated with cancer, like endometriosis and ovarian cancer exhibiting similar symptoms.
Sample Medical Malpractice Cases and Awards in Illinois
$1,000,000 Settlement; Delayed Diagnosis Malpractice; Sangamon County, Illinois
A fifty-eight-year-old female patient visited her healthcare provider due to her loss of appetite, weight gain, and 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 woman's brain damage killed her just two months later.
She accumulated $100,000 in healthcare bills before her death. Her family sued the doctor for wrongful death. The court documents claimed the physician was negligent in his failure to diagnose her illness, stopping her from getting the healthcare that could have saved her life.
The plaintiff's medical misdiagnosis lawyer negotiated a $1 million out-of-court settlement in the case.
$8,000,000 Verdict; Delayed Diagnosis Malpractice; Cook County, Illinois
A Chicago patient with cellulitis, vomiting, diabetes, and nausea visited the emergency room many times in early January of 2009. Her physicians prescribed medications to alleviate the problem.
However, her doctors ordered x-rays revealing pneumonia creating several symptoms, including shortness of breath. She returned to the doctor's office a few days later, where the staff performed an EGD and a GI consultation but failed to diagnose her ailment.
She died while in their care during that visit. Her experienced malpractice attorney, who took the medical misdiagnosis case, sued the responsible facility and medical professionals. Their lawsuit alleged that diagnostic errors occurred, leading to the defendants' misdiagnosis, improper medical treatment, and inadequate policies.
The defendants pushed back on all these charges, saying that she did not display any evident signs of pneumonia. The matter was heard before a judge and jury, likely due to many factual discrepancies.
A jury awarded the plaintiffs $8 million for lost society, financial recovery, and grief.
$4,000,000 Settlement; Delayed Diagnosis Malpractice; Champaign County, IL
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 primary care doctors did not discover that she had an infection from a tick bite. After going into shock during her sixth-day hospital stay, the child succumbed to her condition due to the facility’s incorrect or delayed diagnosis.
Her surviving parents and siblings filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the physicians and hospital in Champaign County court for failing to correctly diagnose her condition. The documents alleged the defendants' delayed diagnosis and other negligent acts directly caused the little girl's death.
While the defendant replied to the lawsuit, they did not present the merits and instead chose to resolve the misdiagnosis case with the family for $4 million.
Medical Diagnosis Error and Delay FAQs
Our law office understands that you likely want more answers about how to file and resolve a medical malpractice claim. Our lawyers have answered some questions below.
Contact our law office today at (888) 424-5757 to schedule a free consultation where we can answer all your questions.
Chicago Medical Diagnosis Error Attorneys When a Doctor Fails to Diagnose a Health Condition
Was your loved one the victim of a wrongful death caused by a cancer misdiagnosis? Our Chicago personal injury law firm helps our clients empower themselves to move their lives forward and back to normal with our years of experience. We work on your behalf.
Contact an experienced Chicago medical misdiagnosis lawyer at (888) 424-5757 (toll-free phone call) or use the contact form to schedule a free consultation so that we can look at your case.
At Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers, LLC, our Chicago, IL, lawyers accept medical malpractice cases on a contingency fee basis. This arrangement ensures you only pay for legal work after we have successfully obtained financial compensation on your behalf.
Our practice areas include motor vehicle crashes, work-related accidents, premises liability, medical malpractice, nursing home abuse, and product liability.