Can You Sue a Doctor for Misdiagnosis?

When you’re not feeling well, you seek the advice of medical professionals. You trust their expertise to get to the root cause of your health issues. Sometimes, that trust is misplaced.

If a doctor misdiagnoses your medical condition, you can face significant personal harm and emotional distress. It can cause your condition to get worse and may lead to death. Read on to learn more about your legal rights if a doctor misdiagnoses you, including whether you can sue a doctor.

A Chicago misdiagnosis attorney from Rosenfeld Injury Lawyers can help you seek compensation when you are ready.

What is Medical Misdiagnosis?

A medical diagnosis is when a doctor identifies what is wrong with a patient. A medical misdiagnosis is when a doctor fails to provide a correct diagnosis. Under medical malpractice, there are different types of medical misdiagnosis, including:

• Incorrect diagnosis: Their original diagnosis was wrong, and the actual illness was left untreated.
• Delayed diagnosis: If the doctor does not diagnose the patient’s condition promptly, symptoms can get worse.
• Failure to diagnose: Doctors can fail to diagnose a condition for several reasons.

Many people wonder, “Can you sue a doctor for misdiagnosis?” Yes, you can. Doctors are held to a basic standard of care. If that standard is not met, they can be held liable for personal injuries, emotional distress, and more under medical malpractice. A medical malpractice lawyer can help you understand your legal options if you have suffered due to a doctor’s misdiagnosis.

Standard of Care

Doctors are expected to uphold a reasonable standard of care. That means they should use their knowledge to treat patients reasonably and carefully. One way to prove a standard of care is that another doctor with similar training would act similarly.

The actual standard of care may vary from state to state, and different types of doctors may also have different standards of care. A doctor breaching this duty of care can ultimately lead to a medical malpractice claim.

If you have questions about whether a standard of care has been upheld, contact a personal injury attorney. They can help you navigate your options if you have been wrongly diagnosed or suffered due to a missed diagnosis.

Elements of a Medical Malpractice Lawsuit

There are four critical elements of a medical malpractice lawsuit. You must prove them to succeed in a medical misdiagnosis case. They include:

• Doctor-patient relationship: You must prove that the doctor-patient relationship existed. This could be between your primary doctor or a consulting doctor if their advice led to the misdiagnosis. The doctor-patient relationship extends to anyone who provided care for you.
• Breach of the standard of care: Because of your doctor-patient relationship, there was the expectation of a basic standard of care. In their misdiagnosis of your condition, the doctor failed to provide the proper standard of care.
• Causation: Because of that breach, the misdiagnosis directly caused harm. This could be worsening symptoms, increased financial burden, such as higher medical bills, or emotional distress. Causation may be challenging to prove.
• Damages: The harm you endured because of the wrong diagnosis resulted in quantifiable losses. You had to seek additional medical treatment, such as heading to the emergency room, taking more prescription medicine, missing work, etc. There was a financial and tangible impact of the healthcare provider’s misdiagnosis on your life.

If you can prove these four elements, you should be able to bring forward a medical malpractice lawsuit against your doctor. You can hold them accountable for their misdiagnosis. A professional legal team can help you determine if your case constitutes misdiagnosis under medical malpractice law.

Common Types of Misdiagnosis

There are several common types of misdiagnoses patients may face. Symptoms may suggest several conditions, and a doctor may make a wrong assumption instead of running additional tests.

Cancer Misdiagnosis

Cancer is an aggressive disease that could be cured or sent into remission if caught early. Unfortunately, diagnostic errors can have serious consequences, including:

• The cancer spreads throughout the body or metastasizes.
• It advances to later stages, which are more difficult to cure.
• It can require more aggressive treatment, including chemotherapy and radiation. These would be unnecessary treatments if there were a proper diagnosis.
• A person can go into organ failure or suffer organ damage.
• The loss of life or a shortened lifespan.
• Ongoing medical care due to a delayed diagnosis.

Cancer misdiagnoses are among the most severe misdiagnoses that a doctor can make. It can have a devastating impact on a person’s quality of life or cause death in severe cases. A misdiagnosis lawsuit can help you seek compensation for tragic diagnostic errors.

Heart Attack and Stroke Misdiagnosis

Every second counts when it comes to treating a heart attack or a stroke. If these conditions are misdiagnosed, delayed, or not treated, they can have debilitating consequences, including:

• Death
• Paralysis
• Loss of speech
• Impaired motor function
• Heart damage
• Organ damage
• Health complications
• Extended recovery times

Misdiagnosis victims also face higher costs of care as they often seek treatment for conditions they don’t have while their symptoms continue to get worse. A lawyer can help you prove that a reasonably competent doctor would have promptly caught and treated the condition.

Infections and Sepsis

Infections are common illnesses that many people face in their lifetime. However, your body may be unable to fight off infection without treatment. That is why antibiotics were developed. In some cases, untreated infections due to the wrong doctor diagnosis can lead to sepsis, which is when your body goes into overdrive as a reaction to it.

As a result, you can experience:

• Organ failure
• Septic shock
• Organ damage

Sepsis can lead to death if it is not promptly treated. The infection can get into your bloodstream, which can cause serious harm. While the CDC reports that sepsis deaths have been declining in recent years, it’s still a common medical misdiagnosis that can cause severe pain and suffering.

Mental Health Conditions

Mental health conditions can be challenging to diagnose because they lack physical symptoms. Additionally, symptoms can overlap between conditions, and a medical professional may get confused.

The wrong doctor diagnoses can cause additional suffering.

• Improper medication: If the doctor prescribes the wrong or incorrect dosage, symptoms may worsen.
• Suicidal thoughts: Misdiagnosis and improper treatment can cause patients to experience suicidal thoughts.
• Anxiety, depression, and isolation: Patients may feel down because the doctor fails to treat their condition.

A person’s mental health is just as important as their physical health. You can bring a medical malpractice case for a mental health misdiagnosis, especially if it caused a loss of life.

Proving a Misdiagnosis Claim

A Chicago medical malpractice attorney from our team can help you prove a misdiagnosis claim and seek compensation for your damages. The following can help support your case.

Medical Records

Your medical records tell a story. It provides your medical history and demonstrates the events leading to the misdiagnosis. These are crucial if your doctor misdiagnosed you or prescribed the wrong medication. You can obtain your medical records in various ways:

• Patient Portal: Your medical records are often available in your online account.
• On request: You may need to request them directly from the hospital via phone, form, or formal request.
• In-person: You can get your records by visiting the hospital in person.

Many victims may face difficulties getting records from their healthcare provider, and an experienced medical malpractice lawyer can help secure the records to support your case.

Expert Testimony

To bring forth a medical malpractice case, you must first provide a certificate of merit. This shows your case has merit based on the opinion of other medical professionals.

Afterward, you may leverage expert testimony to help establish the standard of care in medical malpractice cases. These medical professionals can attest that the doctor’s actions and the medical misdiagnosis fell below the appropriate standards.

A competent doctor can testify to the impact of the medical misdiagnosis on your life and how it could have been avoided with the correct diagnosis.

Causation

It is up to you and your attorney to prove causation in your medical misdiagnosis lawsuit. This can be challenging because many unknown and invisible factors are at play. Ways you and your attorney can prove causation include:

• Expert testimony
• Comparing medical history and current health conditions
• Comparing symptoms following mistreatment and an accurate diagnosis
• Health progresses over time.

You must prove that the misdiagnosis directly caused your injuries or worsen your condition. If you cannot prove causation, you will not be able to establish your medical negligence case.

Damages in Misdiagnosis Cases

Victims of medical malpractice can recover damages to help their financial and physical recovery. Compensatory damages that can be awarded include:

• Medical expenses: Doctor’s bills, surgery costs, medical treatment, prescription medication, ambulance rides, mental health treatment, rehab, physical therapy, and more can all be covered.
• Lost wages: You can recover damages if you cannot work due to your medical misdiagnosis. These include past, current, and future lost wages.
• Pain and suffering: You may be able to recover costs for the emotional turmoil you faced and the physical suffering you endured. These can be awarded on a per diem rate or as a multiplier of your actual expenses.

Additionally, you may be able to seek punitive damages in cases of egregious negligence or recklessness. These are intended to punish the doctor and hospital in medical malpractice suits to prevent it from happening again.

All the damages you recover must be directly related to a doctor’s misdiagnosis. You faced significant personal injury, financial costs, and mental anguish as a result of their error.

The Role of a Personal Injury Lawyer

Here’s how our Chicago personal injury lawyers can help you as you pursue a medical malpractice case.

Case Evaluation

During a free consultation, a lawyer will help you determine the merits of your misdiagnosis claim. We will review the details of your case and provide a recommendation for the best course of legal action. Our law firm will not take your case unless they think they can win it.

Gathering Evidence

An experienced medical malpractice attorney will build your case after they’ve taken you as a client. We will gather evidence, including any materials you can provide, such as medical records, expert testimony, witness statements, and more. Your lawyer will analyze all documentation to structure their arguments.

Negotiation and Litigation

Your lawyer will help defend your rights and advocate on your behalf throughout the legal process. They will negotiate with a doctor’s insurance company for a fair settlement.

We understand the tricks insurance companies may try to play to minimize the amount they have to pay. We will have arguments ready to counter their offer, backed up with facts on why you deserve more. If we cannot reach a settlement with the other parties, we will represent you in court.

Secure Expert Legal Representation!

If you are a victim of an incorrect diagnosis, you may have legal rights. Rosenfeld Injury can help you prove negligence to get fair compensation for your case. Our team of experienced attorneys is available 24/7 to support our clients. We offer a free consultation to discuss your case and potential legal options.

Reach out at (888) 424-5757 to get started.

All content undergoes thorough legal review by experienced attorneys, including Jonathan Rosenfeld. With 25 years of experience in personal injury law and over 100 years of combined legal expertise within our team, we ensure that every article is legally accurate, compliant, and reflects current legal standards.