Catastrophic Medical Mistakes - Get Help Now

When a medical problem is misdiagnosed, it reduces the ability of a person to battle against their illness. A medical misdiagnosis leads to medication being improperly prescribed, further injury to the person or death. Despite better techniques in medicine, the percentage of misdiagnosis has remained virtually unchanged for the last three decades.

When Illness is Misdiagnosed

When misdiagnosis occurs, it can have serious repercussions for the patient. Health problems that are easily treatable can turn into incurable diseases when they are not properly recognized. The three medical misdiagnosis categories are:

• The false positive. This is when an illness is diagnosed but is actually not present in the patient.

• The false negative. This occurs when a patient has a disease, but it is not recognized by medical professionals.

• The equivocal result. This occurs when an interpretation is made based on inconclusive information and does not result in a firm diagnosis.

Victims of a misdiagnosis, along with their family members, can pursue legal action with an experienced medical malpractice attorney in the event of a negative outcome.

Proving Catastrophic Medical Mistakes

Although it may seem obvious when a misdiagnosis takes place, the patient will require more evidence to go forward with a malpractice claim. The reality is doctors often make mistakes and unless they act in a deliberately incompetent manner, they cannot be held responsible for the results of medical errors. This is why it is vital to consider certain factors such as whether the doctor in question created a list of possible diagnoses. This is a differential approach that is utilized when the cause of an illness is not obvious.

If the doctor did perform this action, the patient must determine if the right diagnosis was considered or would have been made by another doctor in the same set of circumstances. The patient should engage the services of an attorney to conduct this investigation. A law firm can consider all the details of the case and make an accurate determination on whether or not to pursue a malpractice claim.