Misdiagnosis and
Medical Malpractice

Get Legal Representation After A Missed Or Delayed Diagnosis

Your doctor is burdened with great responsibility—medical professionals are literally responsible for the lives of their patients. It follows that if your doctor fails to exercise due diligence, the effects can be devastating.

A misdiagnosis can result in severe financial and medical difficulties, subjecting you to unnecessary treatments, long hospital stays, and wrong medications. Severe cases of misdiagnosis can result in permanent injuries or death.

Misdiagnosis due to negligence isn’t simply a case of a doctor making a bad decision or doing the best that they could with the knowledge they had. Misdiagnosis due to negligence is when a doctor fails to perform at the level expected of them by their own profession.

If you’ve suffered because of a misdiagnosis, a Chicago medical malpractice lawyer may be able to help. At Malman Law, we offer free, confidential case reviews for medical malpractice victims and their families. To schedule yours, please call (888) 562-0928.

How a Medical Misdiagnosis Happens in Illinois

A legal case of medical misdiagnosis can take its root in many different causes, many of which may be considered grounds for a malpractice case. For example, if your doctor fails to perform tests properly, incorrectly interprets test results, or doesn’t respond in a timely manner to test results, it could lead to a serious misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis.

This delayed diagnosis may result in a number of serious consequences, including undergoing unnecessary treatments and operations, missing work, or taking unnecessary medications. While all of this is happening, the condition from which you are actually suffering remains untreated. Your body is being pelted with the wrong treatments and medications while it is suffering from another malady that could well be getting worse.

Examples of Misdiagnosis and Wrong Diagnosis

Misdiagnosis can happen with a wide range of diseases and conditions, from cancer to arthritis to heart disease to depression. However, all misdiagnoses can have serious consequences. Here are a few examples of misdiagnosis that changed the lives of the patients and their families forever:

• A doctor misdiagnoses stomach cancer as heartburn and prescribes anti-acid medication. By the time the cancer is discovered by another doctor, months later, it has spread throughout the patient’s body.
• A woman goes to the emergency room complaining of nausea and weakness. Her classic heart attack signs are disregarded and she is diagnosed with a panic attack. She suffers a second, more serious heart attack just days later.
• A child falls in a skiing accident and strikes her head. At the hospital, her head injury is brushed off as a concussion without doctors seeking further testing. She dies as a result of bleeding on the brain.
• A baby is rushed to the emergency room with a very high fever. The doctor controls the fever but does not investigate the cause, brushing it off as a simple virus. Only hours later does the staff discover the baby has meningitis. Both of his legs must be amputated to save his life.