You may be unsure as to whether your trusted medical professional was slow to pinpoint your illness or misdiagnosed it altogether. But what you may be sure of is that you are suffering great damage as a consequence. This is unacceptable in any regard. Follow along to find out the difference between a delayed diagnosis and a failure to diagnose and how a proficient New York City failure to diagnose cancer attorney at Mark L. Bodner, P.C. can come to your aid.
Is there a difference between a delayed diagnosis and a failure to diagnose?
As the name suggests, a delayed diagnosis occurs when there is a significant time interval between the onset of your symptoms and the confirmed diagnosis of your illness. Unfortunately, you may receive a delayed diagnosis for any of the following reasons:
- Your medical facility may be understaffed and therefore make you wait to receive care.
- Your medical facility may mishandle your tests and therefore tamper with the results.
- Your medical professional may be overconfident and therefore send you home without a diagnosis.
On the other hand, a failure to diagnose occurs when a medical professional fails to recognize your set of symptoms as an indicator of a serious illness. You may be made a victim of a failed diagnosis under the following circumstances:
- Your medical professional failed to properly communicate with your other medical providers.
- Your medical professional failed to send you for an appropriate amount of testing.
- Your medical professional failed to spend an appropriate amount of time listening to your concerns.
The most common case our team of attorneys sees is a failure to diagnose cancer. However, this may also apply to a failure to diagnose Lupus, Parkinson’s Disease, Lyme Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, or any other illness.
Do I have a case for a failed or delayed diagnosis?
The similarity that a delayed diagnosis and a failed diagnosis share is that the negligence of a medical professional is involved. And so, in either instance, you may have a medical malpractice claim on your hands.
This is so long as you can prove that you were the patient of the defendant (i.e., the medical professional) and they therefore owed you a duty of care. What’s more, you may have to provide evidence of the onset date of your symptoms (i.e., medical bills and documents) and the diagnosis date from the negligent medical professional (i.e., doctor’s notes); or, the diagnosis date of your actual illness from another medical professional.
In the end, you must take the initiative and reach out to a talented New York City diagnosis error attorney at your earliest possible convenience. Our team at Mark L. Bodner, P.C. will be happy to serve you.