Tampa Medical Misdiagnosis Attorney
Doctors use a process of elimination to diagnose patients. After evaluating a patient’s symptoms, the doctor will form a preliminary list of possible diagnoses and then eliminate the possibilities one at a time until he or she reaches an accurate diagnosis. Medical treatment is a complicated process, and honest mistakes happen. Some medical conditions mirror the symptoms of others, making correct diagnosis difficult in many instances. However, if doctors fail to act with reasonable care or cannot provide an accurate diagnosis in a timely manner, they can cause serious harm to their patient.
Misdiagnosis cases are common in medical malpractice lawsuits. When doctors fail to provide an accurate diagnosis, patients may undergo ineffective or unnecessary treatments and procedures that do more harm than good. In some cases, failing to correctly diagnose a patient’s condition can cause the patient’s problem to worsen to an extreme or fatal degree. When patients suffer injuries due to misdiagnosis, they can recover their losses through medical malpractice lawsuits.
Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim
If you suspect medical malpractice after receiving a botched or delayed diagnosis, it’s vital to keep all your records with your doctor. Retain copies of all the medical reports and documentation provided by the hospital or provider as well as copies of any correspondence between you, your doctor, and the health care organization that provided your care. This evidence will be invaluable during a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Speak with an attorney as soon as possible to get the process started. In most cases, your claim will have to pass through a medical board review before you can proceed with an official complaint. Once the medical board determines that your claim is valid, your attorney can then proceed with filing the complaint with the court and notifying the defendant that you intend to sue.
Winning Your Case
You cannot sue if you suffered no injury or harm; most misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis cases involve some degree of bodily harm or financial loss. However, even if a delayed diagnosis caused you to only spend a few more days in the hospital, those are a few days you should not have to cover due to a doctor’s mistakes.
The first step in winning your medical malpractice case is to prove that an official doctor-patient relationship existed. This means you agreed to be treated and the doctor agreed to treat you. Next, you must show that the doctor was negligent in his or her diagnosis, and this negligence caused you actual harm. Doctors have a higher duty of care than others due to the nature of their work, so when they fail to prevent harm befalling their patients, those doctors are responsible for the results.
Your attorney can help you recover compensation for various things, including:
- Medical expenses. If a misdiagnosis necessitated corrective surgeries or procedures, you can sue for these costs as well as your hospital bills, prescription costs, and any other financial losses from correcting the defendant’s mistakes.
- Pain and suffering. If a delayed or incorrect diagnosis causes a patient’s condition to worsen or causes the patient to endure significant pain for longer than should have been necessary, the patient can sue for pain and suffering. A judge will determine an appropriate figure by evaluating the facts of the case and hearing testimony from expert witnesses who can testify as to the extent of the physical pain and mental anguish resulting from the misdiagnosis.
- Lost income. If a misdiagnosis caused you to miss work for an extended period of time, you can sue for the wages you would have reasonably expected to earn during that time.
Medical malpractice cases for misdiagnoses can be complex, so it’s crucial that you hire an experienced, compassionate attorney who can handle serious litigation. The Tampa team at Williams Law is proud to represent clients in the Tampa area for their misdiagnosis cases. If you’ve experienced the ill effects of a delayed or incorrect diagnosis, reach out to our team to schedule a free initial case evaluation today.
