Misinterpretation of X-Rays and Other Scans in Louisiana

When you’re injured or not feeling well and visit your doctor, you’ll often get an X-ray, MRI or CT scan—medical imaging techniques for doctors to find what’s ailing you.

A radiologist is the expert who examines these images to spot abnormalities, broken bones, cancer or other signs that you have a serious condition that requires attention.

These diagnoses are invaluable to determining the care you need and how fast you need it.

So it’s especially egregious when a radiologist makes a mistake. This can happen a number of ways, from misreading the image to failing to timely inform your care providers of what they saw.

Radiologists bear tremendous responsibility when it comes to your care. Radiology errors can lead to your condition getting worse or your doctors not treating life-threatening ailments with urgency.

Because of this impact, radiologists are among the medical specialists most often sued for medical malpractice —over 40 percent face a lawsuit at some point in their careers, according to the American Medical Association.

Winning a malpractice case against a radiologist can ensure you get the compensation you deserve when carelessness or inexperience damages your health.

But medical malpractice law, especially in Louisiana and Mississippi, is complicated. It takes a local team of medical malpractice attorneys who understand the local legal nuances to get you the best outcome.

The medical imaging malpractice lawyers at The Bowling Law Firm are based in New Orleans and can be a guiding hand to help you navigate your medical malpractice lawsuit. We have decades of experience in medical and legal issues.

We will go over your options with compassion and care so that you can focus on what’s most important: your health and your family.

Common Errors in Evaluating X-rays and Other Scans

Making a diagnosis from an X-ray, CT scan, MRI or other medical imaging technique is a skill radiologists build over time. It’s a simple premise that the more they practice, the better they are at identifying diseases and injuries.

But mistakes happen. Radiologists can miss signs of disease in an image, or they can fail to follow proper procedure, delaying a diagnosis and depriving a patient of a chance to immediately begin treatment.

It’s important to remember that in order to prove medical malpractice, the mistake must be a breach of the standard of care for a patient. In other words, it’s a mistake that can be shown the doctor should have avoided and been able to avoid.

Some common causes for misinterpretation of x-ray mistakes include:

Complacency: Missing a subtle abnormality, relying too heavily on their first impression or ending their evaluation too soon can lead to a wrong or missed diagnosis.

Fatigue: Overworked radiologists can speed through evaluations, missing clear signs of something wrong with a patient.

Inexperience: A lack of knowledge and experience can cause mistakes when evaluating a medical image.

Overlooking medical history: A radiologist can make a mistake if they don’t thoroughly review a patient’s medical history before viewing an X-ray to reach a diagnosis.

Poor communication: Errors occur when a radiologist’s findings aren’t clearly delivered to the patient, whether through a poorly written report or a lack of coordination among medical staff.

Proving a malpractice case against a doctor, hospital or any health care provider requires showing the mistake violated the standard of care to the patient and that the mistake led to harm.

This is a tough standard to meet, and every case is different. That’s why it takes an experienced medical malpractice lawyer to understand what happened and who is responsible.

With three decades of experience in radiology malpractice, The Bowling Law Firm gives patients in Louisiana and Mississippi a proven advantage when pursuing the compensation they deserve after their health care providers make an avoidable error.

Talk to us for a free medical malpractice case evaluation.