Did Your Doctor Misdiagnose Your Illness? May 16, 2018 | Categories: Uncategorized
Misdiagnosis of an illness may have dangerous consequences for the patient. If a patient is misdiagnosed, then she won’t be prescribed the medications or treatments necessary to treat her actual illness. Instead, she may receive prescriptions for unnecessary medications and treatments, which may have serious side effects or health consequences. As the doctor treats the wrong illness, the undiagnosed condition rages on, further damaging the body and spirit and causing unnecessary pain and suffering. In some cases, misdiagnosis leads to death if an illness is allowed to progresses beyond the “point of no return.” If the patient had received a proper diagnosis in a timely manner, the doctor could have prescribed the appropriate medications and treatments so they patient may have survived.
When the doctor’s misdiagnosis of a medical condition has caused you or a loved one to needlessly suffer, you may have a medical malpractice case. A patient’s well-being is put at serious risk when they are misdiagnosed with the wrong illness. If the misdiagnosis was the result of the doctor’s negligence or incompetence and it caused actual harm to the patient, then the patient may be able to recover damages for medical malpractice.
However, doctors are not liable for all diagnostic errors. To prove medical malpractice based on misdiagnosis, a patient must show the following three elements exist:
• There was a doctor-patient relationship;
• The doctor acted negligently (i.e., treatment was not provided in a reasonably skillful and competent manner); and
• The doctor’s negligence or incompetence caused actual injury to the patient.
The majority of medical malpractices cases depend on the second or third element — was the doctor negligence and did that negligence cause harm to the patient? Experienced personal injury lawyers in Greenville SC can help you decide whether the facts of your case meet the legal definition of malpractice.
If you believe you or a loved on has been injured as a result of misdiagnosis, then contact a personal injury attorney specializing in medical malpractice attorney today to see if you’re entitled to medical malpractice damages for misdiagnosis.
Call Garcia Law LLC, personal injury lawyers in Greenville SC, today for more information on medical malpractice claims and how we may be able to provide the legal support you need.