According to the National Center for Policy Analysis, 10-20% of medical cases are misdiagnosed. This means that misdiagnoses happen way more often than you think. In fact, this percentage is much higher than the number of surgeries on a wrong body organ or wrong person, or medical errors.
If you are in Fall River, MA, area and you or a loved one is a victim of medical misdiagnosis, it’s important to seek the help of a medical malpractice lawyer so that they can safeguard your legal rights. It’s easy to dismiss a simple misdiagnosis but at the end of the day it could have serious consequences.
When are You Likely to be Misdiagnosed?
You have a higher chance of being misdiagnosed if you have a rare disease or you have a disease that presents rare symptoms. These include:
Thyroid Disease
Your doctor might misdiagnose this condition as a mental disorder due to symptoms such as weight fluctuation and fatigue.
Fibromyalgia
More often than not, doctors mistakenly misdiagnose fibromyalgia as rheumatic disease, lupus or arthritis. This is because the condition presents general symptoms such as insomnia, anxiety, fatigue and muscle pain which are all symptoms of the mentioned diseases.
Celiac disease
The problem with this disease is how inconsistent its symptoms are. Sometimes the symptoms could include headaches with constipation and other times symptoms could be joint pain with abdominal pain. For this reason, your doctor might mistake your symptoms for irritable bowel syndrome.
Heart attack
The symptoms of a heart attack present themselves differently in different people. For example, some patients may experience a heartburn or indigestion while others may experience a crushing sensation.
A recent study found that doctors are more likely to misdiagnose when they are presented with a difficult a patient. When you are faced with such a situation and you know your doctor is misdiagnosing you, the best option is to speak up. Don’t be rude about it. Always listen to your body especially if you are not responding to treatment.
What Kind of Injuries Can You Get from a Misdiagnosis
Misdiagnosis can force you to undergo painful or invasive treatments which not only cost you a lot of money in medical bills but they can cause significant emotional distress.
Misdiagnosis can also lead to a reduced survival rate. For instance, if you are the victim of a cancer misdiagnosis, the malignant tumor can grow so fast that the delay in diagnosing and treating it can lower your chances of survival.
In some cases, a misdiagnosis may not be your doctor’s fault; they might have made a diagnosis based on information they got from a pathologist, radiologist or some other professional that performed a test on you.
This is why it is important to hire a qualified medical malpractice lawyer who can take charge of your case and identify the parties liable for the injuries that resulted from your misdiagnosis. In addition, if a loved one dies as a result of a misdiagnosis, you can pursue a wrongful death claim against them.
What Should You Do After a Misdiagnosis?
Soon after you realize you might have been misdiagnosed, it’s important to first of all seek medical help to correct your current situation. Secondly, you should seek a second, third and even forth opinion from different health care professionals.
Get in touch with a medical malpractice lawyer as soon as you can. Keep in mind that medical malpractice claims have a statute of limitations and you want to avoid filing a lawsuit when it’s too late. The biggest advantage of hiring an attorney to handle your claim is that they will do all the legal heavy lifting for you while you focus on recovery. They will ensure that you preserve and collect all evidence that you need to prove your claim and they will ensure you get all the compensation you are entitled to.
Contact a Fall River, MA, Medical Malpractice Lawyer Today
At Kevin P Landry Law Offices, we have extensive experience handling medical malpractice cases. We have handled a wide variety of cases and chances are we’ve handled cases similar to yours. If you or a loved one has been misdiagnosed by a health care professional, feel free to book your initial free consultation with us today by calling 508-676-0001.
