I Was Harmed by A Misdiagnosis. What Are My Legal Options?
All medical patients deserve competent medical treatment. When you step into a hospital, a clinic or a doctor’s private practice, you have the reasonable expectation that your condition will be diagnosed with prudence. A proper diagnosis is critical, an incorrect diagnosis can cause tremendous harm and even cost lives. According to the BMJ Quality and Safety Journal, almost six million Americans are harmed every year by a medical misdiagnosis. The negligent failure to diagnose is medical malpractice in Florida. If you, or your loved one, has suffered due to a medical professional’s failure to properly diagnose your condition, please contact an experienced Tavares medical malpractice attorney.
Negligence and Florida Misdiagnosis
An incorrect medical diagnosis, by itself, does not necessarily indicate medical malpractice. Medical science is difficult, and Florida law understands that, so of course, an accurate diagnosis is not possible 100 percent of the time. Medical malpractice requires that you prove that a medical professional’s misdiagnosis was the result of negligence. A negligent misdiagnosis occurs when the diagnosis was of subpar quality. Put simply, that means that if an ordinary medical professional would have, in a similar situation, diagnosed your condition accurately, then you received subpar medical care. If you have been harmed by subpar medical care, then your Florida medical malpractice claim should move forward.
How Do I Prove Negligence?
Failure to diagnose cases are often very complicated. Medicine is a highly technical field. This means that patients will seldom have the experience necessary to be sure that they have actually received subpar medical care. How are you suppose to know if another doctor would have diagnosed your condition properly? That is why anytime you are harmed by a doctor’s misdiagnosis, you should have an experienced California medical malpractice attorney review your case. Your attorney can assess your case and determine the best way for you to move forward. Proving negligence requires the careful gathering and assembly of the evidence. Usually, your attorney will immediately look to review the medical professional’s process. If your doctor did not run adequate tests because he or she was simply too busy, then your condition could have been missed because your doctor took shortcuts. That would indicate negligence. Proper medical care requires giving all cases adequate attention. Your attorney will also consult with experts to get input on whether or not a misdiagnosis was caused by negligence. Expert witnesses can establish the standard of care that your medical professional should have followed and can testify to any deviation from that standard. The bottom line is that expert witnesses provide powerful testimony in medical malpractices cases.
Contact An Experienced Tavares Medical Malpractice Attorney
Medical conditions need to be correctly diagnosed, and it needs to be done in a timely manner. The wrong diagnosis will lead to the wrong treatment. That could cause you harmful side effects while leaving your real medical condition completely untouched. Medical malpractice claims are notoriously complex and can involve state and federal regulations, standard procedures, hospital protocols, and multiple defendants. If you suspect that you or someone you love suffered as a result of medical negligence, it is important to work with a legal team who can initiate an immediate investigation.
Our attorneys are experienced with medical negligence cases involving:
Surgical error
Medication error
Doctor error
Misdiagnosis
Anesthesia error
Nurse error
Hospital negligence
Birth injuries
Emergency room care negligence
Nursing home abuse and neglect\
At the Oldham & Smith, our experienced team of medical malpractice attorneys will help you get the fair compensation that you deserve. Please contact our office today to schedule a free initial case review.
