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Irreversible Mistakes and Deadly Misjudgments:
The Top 10 Medical Misdiagnoses

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 20:19:04 GMT

A prolonged cough. Chest pain. Feeling a lump in the breast. Sometimes intense physical symptoms can appear to be grave indications of a serious ailment or progressing disease, but turn out to be watered-down versions of the “real deal”; i.e. a lump in the breast that is discovered to be benign cyst. However, more often than not, physical pain or the presence of abnormalities, e.g. a breast lump, is in fact an indicator of a serious medical condition.

When doctors and/or other health care providers fail to detect the presence of disease or conditions that can lead to disease (misdiagnosis), the damages that result are usually irreversible, and quite often, deadly.

The following are the top ten types of misdiagnosis:

Delayed Diagnosis

Delayed diagnosis occurs when there is a time delay between a patient seeing a doctor and the correct diagnosis of a medical condition. Misinterpreting and/or disregarding symptoms presented by the patient, assumption by health care providers of benign conditions, failure to review laboratory and diagnostic reports, and failure to follow-up on tests just because the first test didn’t reveal anything (x-rays, CAT scans, etc.) can all lead to a delayed diagnosis.

Failure to Order Tests

Failure to conduct basic preventative tests and maintenance tests such as pap smears and mammograms (to detect disease in its early stages) can result in misdiagnosis.

Disease-Free Patient

Often, a patient undergoes painful and expensive medical treatment—such as chemotherapy, radiation, and sometimes even surgery—to treat a disease he or she never had. When a disease-free patient has been misdiagnosed, and is still experiencing health problems, this can result in serious consequences as the real cause of the patient’s ailments have gone unaddressed and quite possibly have worsened.

Improper Treatment

There are a variety of circumstances in which a patient can be misdiagnosed and subject to improper treatment and preventable procedures. These can include wrong limb amputation, wrong organ operation/transplant, inappropriate administration of chemotherapy, and/or prescription medication errors.

Loss of Records

When medical records are lost or misplaced, a patient’s entire medical history, including diagnostic lab results (blood tests), radiology examinations (x-rays), and plans for treatment, etc., can become jeopardized and misdiagnosis can result.

Medication-causing health conditions

Sometimes misdiagnosis can be caused by a medication that a patient is taking. Numerous medications have serious side effects, not only prescription medications, but also over-the-counter medications and alternative medicines. For example, long-term use of prescription steroid medications can sometimes cause diabetes, and over-use of over-the-counter headache tablets can in fact eventually cause chronic headaches.

Improperly Evaluated Test Results

Physicians can improperly evaluate test results and/or misread findings, leading to a misdiagnosis. Physicians can fail to read CAT scans accurately and thus fail to detect internal bleeding, spinal cord and brain injuries, causing an illness or injury to progress unheeded. Misread MRIs can lead to misguided brain surgery and cancer misdiagnosis. X-rays, if read improperly, can prevent doctors from recognizing and treating serious conditions like lung, skin, or breast cancer.

Underlying disease missed

Missing an underlying disease is a form of misdiagnosis that is common for conditions that have either no symptoms or vague symptoms, and/or there is a lack of proper understanding. For instance, Dermatopathologists – doctors specially trained in clinically diagnosing skin biopsies – are not always used in skin testing because of restrictions by health insurance plans. General pathologists who are not specifically trained in skin biopsies can misinterpret skin slides and diagnose a potentially fatal skin cancer as a benign rash. Physicians have also misdiagnosed breast lumps in men as gynecomastia, a harmless over-development of breast tissue usually caused by an excess of the female hormone estrogen.

Related diseases

Diseases that share the same underlying symptoms can often be confused. Pulmonary tuberculosis is often confused with respiratory problems and the common cold. Frontotemporal dementia, or FTD, is a term that includes several related brain disorders that are often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s disease. Celiac Disease is a genetic disorder that is often misdiagnosed with other disorders like chronic fatigue, Fibromyalgia, or irritable bowel syndrome. Untreated, Celiac disease can lead to an increased risk of cancer.

Never visiting a doctor

This is a type of misdiagnosis that falls solely on the patient. A person may be harboring an adverse health condition that remains hidden because he or she never visits a physician, whether they are experiencing physical symptoms or not.

Misdiagnosis is a traumatic event and can often exact devastating consequences on a victim and a victim’s family. If you have suffered from a misdiagnosis that you believe is no fault of your own, contact a Lead Counsel Medical Malpractice Attorney in your area. If you have lost a loved one due to wrongful death resulting from a misdiagnosis, a Lead Counsel Wrongful Death Attorney is standing by to fight for your legal rights and provide expert, gracious counsel during this difficult time.

For more information on medical misdiagnoses, contact a medical malpractice attorney today.

How to Pick the Right Medical Malpractice Attorney

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:52:57 GMT

It is true that in order to become an attorney, an individual must graduate from law school and pass the bar exam. However, that does not make every attorney equally qualified to handle every legal matter. This is especially true in a specialized area of the law that requires technical knowledge.

Experience Matters

A medical malpractice claim alleges that the defendant deviated from the accepted standards of medical practice and that that act or failure to act caused injury to the patient. Therefore, a plaintiff’s medical malpractice attorney must be familiar with the applicable laws and must be able to understand the underlying medical information.

The plaintiff in a medical malpractice must prove all of the elements of his or her case by a preponderance of the evidence. First, the plaintiff must prove that a legal duty existed between the defendant and the plaintiff. Then, the plaintiff must prove that the duty was breached because the defendant did not provide the accepted standard of care and that deviation from the standard of care was the proximate cause of the plaintiff’s injuries. Finally, the plaintiff needs to establish the damages that he or she is seeking.

In order to prove all of the elements of the case, the plaintiff will likely need to rely on expert testimony. Expert witnesses must be qualified and their proposed testimony must be reliable. It is the job of counsel to both prepare his or her own expert witnesses and to try to disqualify the other side’s expert witnesses.

Medical Knowledge

In order to be able to adequately prepare or cross examine an expert witness, an attorney needs to have a sound understanding of the underlying medical terms, procedures, diagnoses and theories. For this reason, many medical malpractice attorneys have their own nurses, doctors or other medical professionals with whom they consult to learn about the relevant standard of care. Other medical malpractice attorneys are also medical doctors or registered nurses and thus have expertise in both law and medicine.

Litigation Experience

In most cases, the defendant in a medical malpractice case is a large malpractice insurance company. Insurance companies have deep pockets and can afford to spend a lot on legal defense. Therefore, it is important to have a plaintiff’s attorney who has experience litigating and settling medical malpractice claims.

Medical malpractice cases can take a long time to litigate and can have a profound impact on the plaintiff’s life. So, it is important to choose an attorney with whom you are comfortable and who you believe will take the time to answer all of your questions and represent you zealously.

Any attorney with whom you are interested in working should be able to give you examples of cases that he or she has successfully litigated or settled. The attorney should also be able to provide you with references.

When it comes time to retain an attorney, it is important to consider all of the factors described above so that you are comfortable and have the best chance of success with your medical malpractice claim.

Legal Negligence

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:01:09 GMT

Negligence is a term that is commonly used to mean that someone did not act with the appropriate level of care. However, when negligence is used as a legal term it has a very specific definition and in order for a person who sustained injuries in an accident to recover damages, each element of the legal definition of negligence must be satisfied.

Generally, there are four elements that a plaintiff must prove in a negligence case. Those elements include:

· Duty of Care: A plaintiff first needs to establish that the defendant had a legal responsibility to exercise a reasonable degree of care toward the victim. The way in which you determine whether a defendant owed the victim a duty of care depends on the jurisdiction in which the case is heard. Some states have adopted a “foreseeability” test to determine if a duty of care exists. In these states, the defendant owed the victim a duty of care if harm to the victim was a foreseeable consequence of the defendant’s actions. Other states determine whether a duty of care exists by applying a balancing test that considers the forseeability of the harm, the degree of certainty that someone will be harmed, the burden that would be placed on the defendant if he tried to prevent the harm and other similar factors.

· Breach of the Duty of Care: Once a duty of care is established, the plaintiff must prove that duty of care was breached. Typically, the duty of care is breached if the defendant knew what the consequences of his or her actions would be or failed to act like a reasonable person would have acted given the circumstances. The reasonable person standard considers both the location and qualifications of the defendant. For example, a cardiologist is compared to other cardiologists in his jurisdiction when the court is deciding if he failed to act like a reasonable person would act in a medical malpractice action.

· Causation: If a defendant is found to have breached his or her duty of care, the next step for the plaintiff is to prove that the defendant’s actions caused the plaintiff’s injuries which would not have happened but for the defendant’s actions. For example, if the victim was hurt in a car accident then the victim’s injuries must have occurred because of the defendant’s breach of his duty of care (for example, speeding) and not for any other reason (for example, the victim suffered a heart attack while driving).

· Damages: If a plaintiff is successful in proving that the defendant had a duty of care that was breached and that caused the victim’s damages then the plaintiff must prove that he or she is entitled to damages pursuant to state law.

It is important to remember that negligence cases are most often tried in state court and that while many jurisdictions follow the basic definition of negligence provided above, every jurisdiction has its own laws about what constitutes legal negligence. Therefore, it is important to contact a personal injury attorney in the state in which your accident occurred if you believe that you might have a negligence case in that jurisdiction.

Childbirth Brain Injuries Caused by Medical Malpractice

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 18:05:55 GMT

Childbirth is often a time filled with excitement, anticipation and anxiety. Parents are eager to meet their child but understandably concerned about labor and delivery. One of the concerns is that the baby will be born with a brain injury. Occasionally, a brain injury is an unavoidable, yet tragic, consequence of childbirth. However, many times a childbirth brain injury could have been avoided and the injury occurs because a doctor, nurse or hospital committed medical malpractice.

While parents mourn the life that their child could have had but for the medical negligence that caused the brain injury they must also prepare for the reality of their child’s future. Their child’s lifetime care and expenses may be greater than the family can afford and the family may want to hold the people who caused the injuries responsible so that other children are not hurt in the future.

Medical Malpractice

In most jurisdictions, the parent of a child who suffers a brain injury during childbirth has standing to sue on the child’s behalf. Every jurisdiction has a statute of limitations and the lawsuit must be filed in court before the expiration of the statute of limitations. Therefore, it is important to seek the counsel of an experienced medical malpractice attorney as soon as possible after you learn of your child’s injuries.

In order to recover damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit, a plaintiff must be able to prove that:

The defendant had a duty of care to the child. A doctor, nurse, midwife, hospital or birthing center has a duty of care to your child when you use their services for childbirth;
The defendant breached the duty of care to the child. A defendant breaches its duty of care to the child if the defendant fails to act like a reasonable person would have acted given the circumstances. For example, if a reasonable obstetrician would have performed a Cesarean section and your doctor did not do so and lacked a medical reason for not doing so then the obstetrician may have breached his duty of care to your child;
The defendant’s breach of the duty of care caused the child’s injuries: Your child’s injuries must have happened because of the defendant’s actions (or inactions). In other words your child would not have suffered the brain injury but for the defendant’s actions; and
The plaintiff is entitled to damages pursuant to state law: If you are successful in proving the above three elements of medical malpractice then you are likely entitled to damages pursuant to state law.

Possible Damages

Possible damages in a childbirth brain injury medical malpractice lawsuit include compensation for past and future medical bills, pain and suffering, rehabilitation costs, projected living expenses for the child who is unlikely to be able to support himself in adulthood because of the injuries and lost income if a parent is unable to work due to the demands of caring for a child with a brain injury. In some cases, courts may also award punitive damages against the defendant.

Childbirth brain injuries forever change the life of a family. While damages cannot undo the harm that was caused nor give the child the opportunities that the child may have had if he or she had not been injured, financial damages can give a family the resources to provide the necessary care for the child and hold the defendant accountable for medical malpractice.

Free Medical Malpractice Articles | Free Medical Malpractice Legal Articles

Irreversible Mistakes and Deadly Misjudgments:The Top 10 Medical Misdiagnoses

How to Pick the Right Medical Malpractice Attorney

Legal Negligence

Childbirth Brain Injuries Caused by Medical Malpractice

Irreversible Mistakes and Deadly Misjudgments:
The Top 10 Medical Misdiagnoses