As some Florida residents already know, doctors may, despite their education and training, fail to properly diagnose a patient’s illness or injury. In some cases, a doctor may not only miss the correct condition but also provide the ailing patient with a diagnosis for an incorrect condition. This can be cause for alarm. For, an incorrect diagnosis may not only lead to ineffectual treatment but can even exacerbate the actual illness or injury.
According to authorities, there are various reasons for this type of medical error. While some conditions are very difficult for doctors to diagnose properly in the first place, many other conditions have certain symptoms in common, leading to the possibility of an incorrect diagnosis. Moreover, there are many conditions that are prone to over-diagnosis, which may result in incorrect diagnoses, and other conditions that lend themselves to under-diagnosis, which might result in missed diagnoses, authorities say.
Some of the routine screening tests that doctors employ on patients result in misdiagnosis because of false positives. According to authorities, many cases of misdiagnosis occur on account of an overreliance on certain screening tests.
Cancer is one of the serious medical conditions that doctors often fail to diagnose properly. Heart attacks are also commonly misdiagnosed, reportedly. A wrong diagnosis can possibly result in death if it is not noticed and corrected in a timely manner.
When health care professionals fail to detect cancer or other serious illnesses, the consequences may be very distressing for patients and their families. Patients may ultimately face accumulated medical bills for a condition that was not treated properly in the first place. With the help of an attorney, these patients may seek legal recourse in civil court. When patients die because of an improper diagnosis, their families may pursue civil action as well. Many bereaved families seek the representation of a medical malpractice attorney, who may provide specific legal advice. This blog, on the other hand, is intended to serve only as general information.
Source: Right Diagnosis, “Completely Wrong Diagnosis“, October 21, 2014
