Misdiagnosis Malpractice

A misdiagnosis malpractice case arises when a medical provider incorrectly diagnoses what he or she believes to be the cause of a patient’s illness, discomfort, or condition. While many medical malpractice cases involve a medical provider performing a mistake during a procedure, misdiagnosis malpractice may involve cases in which and procedures performed perfectly well however, was the inappropriate procedure based on an inappropriate diagnosis. For example, if a medical provider inappropriately concludes a patient is suffering from stomach cancer and removes the patient’s stomach, although the surgical procedure may have been performed with expert care, because it was based on a misdiagnosis the patient suffers the lasting effects. Not all types of misdiagnosis cases will be successful. Instead, the law recognizes that there are times in which making inappropriate diagnosis is incredibly difficult and may even amount to guesswork. A successful misdiagnosis malpractice case requires proving that at the time the diagnosis was made, any other reasonable medical provider would have been able to make the correct diagnosis.

Some types of misdiagnosis cases are straightforward and can be proven without significant difficulty, others can be far more complex. A misdiagnosis medical malpractice case can arise from almost any type of situation. However, common examples of misdiagnosis medical malpractice cases involve appendicitis, heart attack, breast cancer, and lung cancer.  One aspect of misdiagnosis cases that is often difficult to understand is proving damages. According to law the damages relating to a misdiagnosis medical malpractice case typically require proving the extent to which the patient’s medical condition was made worse as a result of the misdiagnosis. This standard recognizes that there is typically an underlying condition or illness that the patient was already suffering when the medical provider may be an appropriate diagnosis. However, the damages relating to the misdiagnosis case require proving the extent to which a patient’s condition was made worse as a result of the misdiagnosis.

There are times when the damages from a misdiagnosis results in completely separate harms or damages such as an unnecessary surgery that is performed based on a misdiagnosis, and other times when a misdiagnosis makes a patient’s medical condition worse. Often times damages in any misdiagnosis malpractice case focus on the legal principle of loss of chance.