Medical Negligence Lawyers Malden, Boston
About Misdiagnosis and Failure to Diagnose Cases
Prompt diagnosis is essential to treating a medical condition safely and efficiently. A delay in diagnosis means a delay in treatment, which can in turn mean added risks and expenses. If your physician misdiagnoses or fails to diagnose a serious condition that a competent professional should be expected to diagnose properly, he or she may be held liable for the injuries that result. The medical negligence lawyers of Rodman, Rodman & Sandman, serving the Boston area from our Malden, Massachusetts law office, routinely win large verdicts and settlements for victims of medical malpractice.
About Misdiagnosis and Failure to Misdiagnose
Medical negligence takes many forms, and our lawyers have seen them all. When you visit the doctor with an ailment, you trust him or her to promptly and accurately diagnose your condition, then prescribe appropriate treatment. Prompt diagnosis can literally be the difference between life and death, as many potentially fatal conditions, such as certain cancers, can be controlled or cured if they are identified and treated early. A missed diagnosis wastes precious time, allowing your condition to worsen without treatment. Worse yet, medication prescribed to treat a condition you do not actually have can cause serious side effects and health problems of its own.
Diagnostic mistakes may be grounds for a lawsuit when your doctor makes a wrong diagnosis despite possessing adequate information about your medical condition, causing damages in the form of longer and costlier treatment, lost wages, worse health, and even wrongful death. If your medical doctor has failed to diagnose your condition, he or she could be guilty of negligence. Contact our lawyers, located in Malden, Massachusetts near Boston, to find out whether you have a case.
Commonly Misdiagnosed Conditions
Some medical conditions are more commonly misdiagnosed than others. By far the most common is breast cancer, which may go undiagnosed despite physical symptoms, such as a breast lump, because doctors rely too heavily on risk factors such as age and the results of mammogram imaging, discounting the patient's reports. Breast cancer can often be treated successfully if diagnosed early, but when a doctor improperly fails to diagnose it, patients are sometimes subjected to longer, harsher courses of treatment, potentially including a mastectomy that might have been avoided. Some patients even die unnecessarily as a result of a missed or delayed diagnosis.
Other commonly misdiagnosed conditions include those caused by environmental contaminants. These conditions sometimes have symptoms resembling those of other, less serious maladies. For example, lung cancer, mesothelioma, and asbestosis caused by asbestos exposure are sometimes misidentified, causing a delay in treatment that shortens the life of the patient. Though symptoms may resemble those of other illnesses, a doctor seeing them in combination with a history of asbestos exposure should order testing sufficient to identify an asbestos-related medical problem. Failure to do so may constitute medical negligence and be grounds for a lawsuit handled by one of our lawyers.
Contact the Medical Negligence Lawyers of Rodman, Rodman & Sandman
If you or someone you love has been injured because of a careless diagnostic mistake, you need to speak with one of our medical negligence lawyers as soon as possible. Contact Rodman, Rodman & Sandman, serving Boston, Malden, and Medford, Massachusetts, to begin your case.