Not feeling well? In excruciating pain? Having difficulty breathing? These are all reasons that would have you turn to a health care professional to help you determine the cause of your illness or distress. When a patient receives a wrong or missed diagnosis, it can lead to unnecessarily severe side effects or advancement of disease. This error could be considered delayed diagnosis medical malpractice.
Delayed Diagnosis Medical Malpractice Circumstances
A diagnostic delay can be the result of any one, or a series of mistakes made by health care professionals. Incidents or negligence leading to a delayed diagnosis claim in Indiana can happen in urgent care, emergency departments, or during routine screening. A medical practitioner may miss something on a test or radiology image, order the wrong labs, or even be dismissive of a patient’s complaints and fail to order any labs or images to determine what ails them.
Reasons for Delayed Diagnosis Medical Malpractice
From a patient point of view, there is no good reason for a delayed diagnosis. Being misdiagnosed or undiagnosed could mean that a disease is given a longer opportunity to advance itself and cause you more harm in the process.
The delay could be the result of the time taken to “rule out” the most common diagnosis related to your symptoms. This is standard medical practice and generally is not considered medical malpractice. An Indiana delayed diagnosis malpractice claim occurs when an Indiana medical provider is negligent in their diagnostic treatment decisions or misinterprets diagnostic test results, resulting in a delay in treatment that causes unnecessary harm.
Severe Disease or Death as a Result of Delayed Diagnosis
Without a proper diagnosis, a disease or illness has the opportunity to advance in your body. These delays can lead to a more severe disease, a more difficult and costly treatment path, or even death. An Indiana delayed diagnosis malpractice claim may be present if you experience severe consequences from a negligent delay in timeliness of care.
Some commonly misdiagnosed or delayed diagnosed conditions include pneumonia, stroke, heart attack, appendicitis, and cancer. All of these can have life-long, long-term side effects, which will likely increase in severity with every moment of increased delay in proper diagnosis.
Help with Your Delayed Diagnosis Malpractice Claim
David Allen, a Carmel Fishers delayed diagnosis malpractice lawyer, has seen first-hand the consequences his clients suffer as a result of medical negligence. Experiencing pain, discomfort, and the stress of not knowing what is wrong while knowing something is definitely wrong can be overwhelming. Delayed diagnosis of an illness or disease due to medical negligence is often devastating to patients and is also potentially deadly.
David and the other attorneys and staff at Camden & Meridew, P.C. cannot prescribe medical treatments to heal your body, but they can help you understand and manage your Indiana delayed diagnosis medical malpractice claim. You can contact David and the team at Camden & Meridew, P.C. by calling 317-770-000 or complete the firm’s online contact form to schedule a consultation.