Bakersfield Failure to Diagnose Lawyer

When patients are sick, they place a lot of trust in their doctor. Physicians must be able to promptly and accurately diagnose a condition or illness so patients can receive the treatment they need right away. Sadly, sometimes doctors and other healthcare professionals make mistakes. They do not always identify illnesses right away and when that is the case, patients suffer serious harm. When this happens, it is often a case of medical malpractice. Patients who have been hurt or become sicker due to a doctor’s failure to diagnose should always speak to a Bakersfield failure to diagnose lawyer for help pursuing a personal injury claim.

A failure to diagnose is not always negligence, meaning that not all missed diagnoses will give rise to a lawsuit. Sometimes, doctors must use a method of trial and error before they can come to an accurate diagnosis. This does not necessarily mean that they are negligent. However, when doctors do not take the same duty of care that another doctor would have, their actions could constitute negligence.

Usually, plaintiffs, or injured patients, must use expert testimony to prove that a physician was negligent. They typically do this by speaking to a failure to diagnose attorney in Bakersfield who will reach out to their network of experts to testify to the fact that the doctor in the case was negligent.

Unfortunately, there are some conditions that are not diagnosed more commonly than others. These conditions almost always have the potential to be fatal for the patient, which is why missing the diagnosis of them is even more costly to the patient and their loved ones. These conditions include:

• Cancer
• Stroke
• Heart attack
• Infections such as sepsis or gangrene
• Meningitis
• Depression
• Appendicitis
• Sleep apnea
• Lyme disease
• Lupus
• Parkinson’s disease
• Multiple sclerosis
• Endometriosis

A missed diagnosis of any of these conditions can cause serious harm to patients and often, they and their loved ones are not aware of the condition they suffered from until it is too late.

A failure to diagnose can happen in a number of ways. A doctor may:

• Fail to order the appropriate tests
• Fail to interpret the results of a test correctly
• Fail to spend the necessary time with a patient to accurately assess their symptoms
• Fail to listen to the patient’s symptoms and complaints
• Fail to create a full medical history for the patient
• Fail to fully analyze a patient’s medical history

When any of these scenarios occur, patients can be harmed in a number of ways. The condition they are suffering may become worse, or a doctor may make a misdiagnosis and recommend treatment that is not only inappropriate, but harmful for the patient.

Every patient should be able to trust that they will receive the best possible care from their physician. If you have not and have suffered for it, call a failure to diagnose attorney in Bakersfield. Markus Willoughby has won countless awards for his skill and expertise in the field of medical malpractice, and lawyers throughout California and the entire country rely on his knowledge in some of their most challenging cases. If you or a loved one has suffered from failure to diagnose, call us today at (800) 427-7020 to arrange a free consultation.