Diagnosis Error Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Louisiana & Mississippi
A diagnosis error can worsen existing medical conditions, delay treatment, and cause additional health complications. If this error occurred because a doctor, nurse, or another health care provider failed to do their due diligence and screen for a disease, that could be considered medical malpractice.
Simply showing that your condition was misdiagnosed or that a medical professional failed to diagnose an illness isn’t enough. You need to demonstrate that the health care providers involved didn’t act as reasonable, trained professionals would.
The Bowling Law Firm can help you understand whether you have a valid diagnosis error claim. If you believe that you experienced medical malpractice, we can discuss it with you.
Our New Orleans medical malpractice lawyers have handled thousands of cases throughout Louisiana and Mississippi.
Pursuing a diagnosis error case takes significant time and effort. If you want to seek justice and hold negligent medical professionals accountable, you should have help from attorneys with extensive experience.
It won’t cost you anything to talk to us about your diagnosis error case. At The Bowling Law Firm, your free medical malpractice attorney consultation comes with no obligation.
You only pay costs or fees if you recover damages.
The Bowling Law Firm has been recognized as a Tier One Medical Malpractice Firm by Best Lawyers in America. David Bowling and Katie Sepcich Drummond have been individually recognized by Best Lawyers and Super Lawyers, and Super Lawyers recently recognized Brady Williamson as a Rising Star. David Bowling has extensive jury trial experience and serves as an associate on the American Board of Trial Lawyers and as a fellow of the American College of Trial Lawyers, which accepts up to only 1% of Louisiana attorneys. The firm carries Martindale-Hubbell’s highest AV-Preeminent rating for ability and ethics. Our attorneys have experience with misdiagnosis claims, failure-to-diagnose claims, and other diagnosis error claims.
Types of Diagnosis Error Medical Malpractice Cases
There are a few types of diagnosis errors that can serve as the basis for a medical malpractice claim:
1) Misdiagnosis
Getting diagnosed with the wrong illness is dangerous for many reasons. The treatments for the diagnosed illness could be ineffective, and the wrong treatments could even harm you.
When you have a different underlying condition from what your diagnosis says, you may not be getting the treatment you need.
2) Delayed diagnosis
A delayed diagnosis can result in a critical loss of treatment time. You could suffer more pain, the disease may advance, and your treatment options could become more limited.
If you believe that your doctor overlooked symptoms or didn’t take them seriously at first, that could be malpractice.
3) Failure to diagnose
This happens when a medical professional completely overlooks the signs of a health problem and never diagnoses it, causing you additional health complications.
Diagnosing one disease and neglecting to diagnose another related condition can also be considered a failure to diagnose.
These diagnosis errors happen for all kinds of reasons.
Sometimes a doctor doesn’t take the time required to look at a patient’s medical history. Communication errors between members of a care team or between a doctor and patient also cause issues.
In some cases, testing errors, like the use of faulty equipment or a failure to follow up on results, can cause diagnosis mistakes.
Whatever the reason for a diagnosis error, any member of your care team should be held responsible if their negligence hurt you.
If your situation doesn’t seem to fit neatly into any of the above categories, you may still have a claim. Talk to a New Orleans medical malpractice lawyer from The Bowling Law Firm.
During a free attorney consultation, we can tell you more about your legal options and whether we think that you may have a sound diagnosis error case.
When Is a Diagnosis Error Considered Medical Malpractice?
In every diagnosis error medical malpractice claim, there are four elements you generally need to prove:
1) Duty of care
You must establish that a doctor-patient relationship existed between you and the medical professionals you’re pursuing a claim against.
If you were their patient, you were owed a duty of care. They were obligated to offer you the level of care that a reasonable, trained medical professional would be expected to provide in a similar situation.
2) Breach of duty
A breach of duty occurs when a health care provider fails to meet the standard of care.
In diagnosis error cases, that could mean they failed to recognize symptoms, perform the appropriate tests, or seek out opinions from specialists.
3) Causation
You must also show that this breach directly impacted you. Because of the provider’s actions or inaction, you weren’t properly diagnosed and treated, and this caused harm, such as a worsening condition.
4) Damages
Then you need to show that this misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or failure to diagnose caused measurable harm and damages.
You may have incurred extra medical bills, missed work and lost wages, and experienced pain and suffering due to the error and the stress of the situation.
A diagnosis error that is a mild inconvenience or an honest, initial miss by a doctor following the standard of care may not be grounds for a medical malpractice claim.
But an error that delayed your treatment, caused more anxiety and stress, resulted in the development of more health problems, or caused injury could indicate that the standard of care wasn’t met.
A medical professional might defend themselves by saying they acted reasonably. They could argue that you did not present with the common symptoms of this specific health issue, so the delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis was not their fault.
If you have a valid claim, a Louisiana medical malpractice attorney can help you make the argument that the party or parties involved did not act as trained, reasonable health care providers should have—that they may not have adhered to the standard of care.
Whether it was a misdiagnosis, a delayed diagnosis, or a failure to diagnose that resulted in harm, talk to a lawyer to determine whether you may have a malpractice claim.
Work With a New Orleans Medical Malpractice Lawyer From The Bowling Law Firm
You are not required to work with a lawyer when pursuing a medical malpractice case, but pursuing justice on your own without legal representation is difficult.
The Bowling Law Firm’s medical malpractice lawyers have been helping Louisiana and Mississippi residents for more than four decades, including when health care providers miss diagnoses or get them wrong.
We understand the elements you need to prove a diagnosis error claim. We know how medical professionals are likely to defend themselves from accusations of wrongdoing.
If you have a valid claim, our team can help you gather evidence, build your case, and attempt to hold negligent providers accountable for the damages they caused.
