A correct and timely diagnosis is the foundation of effective medical treatment. When a doctor fails to diagnose a condition, diagnoses the wrong condition, or takes too long to reach the correct diagnosis, the consequences for the patient can be severe. A cancer that could have been caught early and treated successfully may progress to an advanced stage. A heart attack may be dismissed as indigestion. A serious infection may go untreated until it becomes life-threatening.

According to a study by Johns Hopkins, diagnostic errors affect approximately 12 million Americans each year, and about one-third of these errors result in serious harm. Diagnostic errors are the leading cause of medical malpractice claims in the United States and account for the highest proportion of malpractice-related deaths.

Types of Diagnostic Errors

Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis occurs when a doctor diagnoses a patient with a condition they do not actually have. This can lead to unnecessary and potentially harmful treatment for the wrong condition while the patient's actual condition goes untreated. For example, a patient whose lung cancer is misdiagnosed as pneumonia may receive antibiotics that have no effect on the cancer while the tumor continues to grow and spread.

Delayed Diagnosis

A delayed diagnosis occurs when the doctor eventually reaches the correct diagnosis but takes an unreasonably long time to do so. The delay can allow the condition to progress to a more advanced or more dangerous stage, reducing the effectiveness of treatment and worsening the patient's prognosis.

Failure to Diagnose

In some cases, the doctor fails to diagnose the condition entirely, and the patient's condition continues to worsen until it is discovered by another provider or becomes impossible to ignore.

Common Conditions Involved in Diagnostic Error Claims

  • Cancer: Cancer misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis are among the most common and most devastating diagnostic errors. Early detection is critical for successful cancer treatment, and a delay of even a few months can mean the difference between a treatable early-stage cancer and an advanced-stage cancer with a poor prognosis.
  • Heart attacks and stroke: The symptoms of a heart attack or stroke can be subtle, particularly in women, and misdiagnosis can have fatal consequences.
  • Infections: Serious infections such as sepsis, meningitis, and necrotizing fasciitis can progress rapidly and become life-threatening if not diagnosed and treated promptly.
  • Appendicitis: A ruptured appendix due to delayed diagnosis can cause peritonitis, a life-threatening infection of the abdominal cavity.
  • Pulmonary embolism: Blood clots in the lungs can be fatal if not diagnosed and treated quickly.

Proving a Diagnostic Error Malpractice Claim

Not every diagnostic error constitutes malpractice. Medicine is complex, and some conditions are genuinely difficult to diagnose. To succeed in a diagnostic error malpractice claim, you must prove that:

  • A doctor-patient relationship existed
  • The doctor failed to diagnose the condition or diagnosed it incorrectly
  • A reasonably competent doctor in the same specialty would have made the correct diagnosis under similar circumstances
  • The failure to diagnose caused the patient to suffer harm that would not have occurred with a timely and correct diagnosis

The concept of a differential diagnosis is central to many diagnostic error cases. A differential diagnosis is a systematic process by which doctors consider all possible conditions that could explain a patient's symptoms, then use testing, examination, and clinical reasoning to narrow the list. If a doctor failed to include the correct condition on their differential diagnosis list, or failed to order appropriate tests to rule in or rule out conditions on the list, they may have fallen below the standard of care.

Contact Our Medical Malpractice Team

If you believe you or a loved one has been harmed by a diagnostic error, contact Dr. Ted Injury Law at (800) 555-HURT for a free consultation. Sarah Mitchell and Lisa Chen lead our medical malpractice team and have recovered over $250 million for victims of medical negligence.