You probably know that a prompt, accurate diagnosis can mean the difference between life and death, or at least between an effective recovery and no recovery at all. However, unless you hold relevant medical knowledge yourself, you must depend on your practitioner's skill and competence in producing that diagnosis.
If you feel you have sustained serious financial losses due to a wrong or delayed medical diagnosis that has worsened your health, you may want to file a malpractice lawsuit against the institution holding responsibility for the practitioner's error. Before you proceed, review these frequently asked questions on the subject.
What Types of Diagnostic Errors and Issues May Merit a Malpractice Suit?
Several types of diagnostic errors may count as medical malpractice. For instance, your doctor may have pronounced you healthy instead of identifying a health problem in need of treatment. Misdiagnosis, in which the doctor mistakes one condition for another, may also fall under the category of malpractice.
Even if your doctor correctly diagnosed your condition, the manner of that diagnosis could result in harm that merits a malpractice lawsuit. Examples include diagnosis of one condition but not another co-occurring condition, failure to address complications related to the condition, or a purposeful delay in making the diagnosis.
The practitioner directly involved in your care need not make a diagnostic error for the diagnostic error to occur. A mistake in a lab test or report could steer the practitioner toward a wrong diagnosis, despite the practitioner's skill and experience. The institution that employs the practitioner or performs the test would still hold liability.
How Can Diagnostic Errors Damage Your Quality of Life?
Diagnostic negligence or incompetence can do all kinds of harm to someone in need of proper, timely medical care. If you received a delayed, incorrect, or incomplete diagnosis, you might end up receiving the wrong kind of treatment or even no treatment at all. You might also receive treatment for one condition while another goes untreated.
A delayed diagnosis can prove devastating in a progressive, potentially life-threatening health condition, such as heart disease or cancer. In the time lost to the practitioner's efficiency, your condition could grow steadily worse until you require more extensive and expensive treatments that you might otherwise have been able to avoid.
How Should You File and Present a Diagnostic Malpractice Lawsuit?
If you decide to sue for diagnostic malpractice, don't put the process off for too long. For example, Texas law states that you have
two years from the date of the tort (the action that caused the damage) to file your lawsuit. As a further catch-all, Texas has a statute or repose preventing claimants from filing lawsuits more than 10 years after a tort.
The defendant holds the burden of proof in a diagnostic malpractice case. Your attorney must prove that you had a doctor-patient relationship with the defendant, that the practitioner performed a negligent act, that the negligent act caused you injury, and that those injuries resulted in measurable damages.
What Kinds of Malpractice Compensation Can You Pursue?
Your attorney can file for three main types of damages related to your diagnostic malpractice incident. Special damages include specific financial losses, such as medical bills and lost wages. General damages include intangible losses, such as pain and suffering, loss of future income, and damage to your quality of life.
Less commonly, a court may award punitive damages. Courts usually reserve these kinds of damage awards for especially negligent behavior in which the practitioner knowingly committed the error.
Some states maintain caps on the maximum non-economic damages a court can award in malpractice cases. For instance, in Texas, you can't collect more than
$250,000 in non-economic damages against any single healthcare defendant, or more than $500,000 in economic damages total against multiple healthcare defendants.
The Law Offices of Janice Maloney can handle a wide range of personal injury and professional negligence cases, including medical malpractice cases.
Contact our office
today to schedule a free initial consultation and discuss your legal options.
