Jersey County Misdiagnosis Lawyer

Misdiagnosis or Failure to Diagnose Attorney in Jersey County

When a doctor fails to identify a medical condition, this is considered a misdiagnosis. He may have missed the diagnosis entirely, given a wrong diagnosis, delay in diagnosing the disease, failure to recognize changes, or aggravating an existing condition while treating the new symptoms. The doctor may partially diagnose the illness properly and fail to realize there is more to the disease.

Failure to diagnose is identifiable as a failure to treat a patient when they should have. You can also identify failure to diagnose when a doctor fails to make an obvious diagnosis.

A misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose in Jersey County does not automatically mean you have a case for medical malpractice. Speak to an experienced lawyer about the viability of your potential claim.

Causes of Misdiagnosis

Doctor Negligence

Even when a doctor gives reasonable care and follows all the correct procedures, there is still a chance they will misdiagnose your condition.

To determine whether a doctor was negligent, you must investigate the doctor’s differential diagnostic method. A doctor usually makes a preliminary evaluation which he then uses to make a list of diagnoses. A medical technician tests diagnoses in order of their probability and their strength determined by additional medical examination.

If you want to prove that a doctor was negligent, you must also prove that a doctor with similar credentials and under similar conditions would have made the correct diagnosis.

Erroneous Diagnostic Tests

Sometimes, the doctor will make a wrong decision that fits the diagnostic tests. Diagnostic tests do not always give accurate results, and these lead to misdiagnosis.

Inaccurate results can be a result of:

• Faulty diagnostic equipment.
• Human error: A survey conducted by the Agency for Healthcare Research Quality shows about 44% of diagnostic errors result from human error. The study surveyed 300 doctors and 22 hospitals.

Types of Medical Diagnostic Errors

Some of the diagnostic mistakes made are:

Delayed Diagnosis

The doctor takes an unusually long time making a diagnosis. Even when the diagnosis is correct, it may come after a lot of suffering and may even be too late to help.

Failure to Diagnose a Related Disease

The doctor may have diagnosed the correct illness but missed a related disease. A related disease may have a high probability of incidence with the primary condition; they often go hand in hand.

Failure to Recognize Complications

The doctor may fail to identify complications that aggravate the condition or illness.

Wrong Diagnosis

The doctor diagnoses the wrong illness and proceeds to treat it. An example commonly cited is when a diagnoses cancer to a cancer-free patient.

Call a Jersey County Lawyer for Misdiagnosis or Failure to Diagnose

If you are unfortunate to have received a misdiagnosis and it resulted in harm, you can seek compensation from either the doctor or the medical facility for medical malpractice.

In Illinois, if you suspect that your case is a medical malpractice case, you can consult a lawyer with medical malpractice experience. You must file a medical malpractice lawsuit within two years of the incident in the State of Illinois. The two-year time limit helps protect doctors, medical personnel, and medical institutions from fear. Lawsuits for misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose in Jersey County can take a long time to manage effectively, are complex, and are highly complicated. Call our firm for dedicated assistance.