Can you get compensation for a misdiagnosis in Maryland?
Misdiagnosis can mean that your condition goes untreated for a long time, and you may get worse while you wait for more information. Additionally, if you are diagnosed with the wrong condition, you could undergo unnecessary treatment. This could lead to significant medical expenses and serious physical harm and mental distress, potentially including irreversible harm. With that in mind can you get compensation for a misdiagnosis in Maryland? The Law Offices of Nick Del Pizzo, a medical malpractice law firm in Dundalk, MD we help to dispel any myths when it comes to your rights.
Answering The Question: Can you get compensation for a misdiagnosis in Maryland?
Filing a Medical Malpractice Claim for Misdiagnosis
If your doctor cannot make an accurate diagnosis of your medical condition, you might have a right to file a medical malpractice claim to pursue a legal remedy for any harm you suffered. The critical question to answer is whether your physician adhered to the applicable medical standard of care. It is key to remember then that this does not mean that necessarily the correct diagnosis was made.
In some cases, depending on the circumstance, there could be other parties outside of just the doctor can be held liable too such as lab technicians, radiologists, nurses, or specialists.
Proving a Misdiagnosis Claim
When you sue for misdiagnosis, you must first prove that the doctor or another medical professional that misdiagnosed you committed negligence in failing to get the diagnosis right. Keep in mind some conditions are very difficult to identify, and even expert physicians cannot easily diagnose the condition or tell it part from similar conditions.
If however, your doctor should have gotten the diagnosis correct, then you can usually sue them for medical malpractice.
Why does this happen?
There are many factors that can lead to misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis. The reasons for this are outlined below.
- Fragmentation:
The fact that patients no longer rely on one doctor for their medical needs is more common than ever before. Since so many specialists and doctors see many patients, this increases the chances for errors between those physicians.
- Inexperienced Medical Professionals:
An unfortunate truth with any specialty field is that there are those who are simply inexperienced. When a physician lacks true experience to recognize specific symptoms, something will either be missed or ignored.
- Insufficient Tim with Patients:
With the ever-increasing demand in the medical field and heightened populations, the time with our physicians is shorter than ever before. When a physician is seeing many patients in a single day, certain details can be missed more easily.
- Lack of or Misinterpreting of Diagnostic Testing:
Whether it is due to no testing being given or the wrong interpretation of a test, both situations can lead to misdiagnosis. This could be a doctor feeling a test is unnecessary given the symptoms shown or not fully understanding the signs a test is pointing too.
Damages for Misdiagnosis
The goal of any personal injury lawsuit is to seek monetary compensation for the injuries and damages that were caused by another person or company. With medical malpractice, this is no different. The following are all common areas of compensation for misdiagnosis victims in Maryland.
- Damages for Unnecessary Treatments:
If you were misdiagnosed than you could undergo treatment that you didn’t need. In these cases, the treatment that you went through could be extremely expensive and even cause harm in they were unnecessary.
If you had to pay for this medical care and medication and you spend hours on the phone fighting with insurance companies only to find that these treatments were unnecessary, you deserve serious financial compensation.
- Damages for Worsened Conditions:
After finding the true medical condition, you may need additional medical care to treat the true condition. If this diagnosis was delayed, your condition may have gotten worse, and the care costs might be higher than if your condition was caught early.
If you suffered additional harm from increased care needs because your doctor did not diagnose your condition early enough, you should be entitled to sue for these damages.
- Mental Anguish from Wrongful Diagnosis:
If you received news that you have a condition that you did not actually have, it can seriously alter your life. If you really had a life altering condition, the mental effects are something that you will have to live with and move forward with but if your doctor was wrong, these mental effects can constitute serious, unnecessary harm.
All this unnecessary anguish should be compensated.
About The Law Offices of Nicholas J Del Pizzo
At The Law Offices of Nicholas J. Del Pizzo, III P.A. in Baltimore, Maryland, we make ourselves available for our clients when they are facing foreclosure of their home, bankruptcy, personal injury or medical malpractice. When you have a consultation at our law office, you meet with Nick Del Pizzo, a Baltimore lawyer, the founder of our firm. Your case is not passed off to a paralegal or less-experienced associate. You get the personalized attention you need from a local law firm. Whatever your legal need is, we are there for you, seven days a week. Your case becomes our cause, and we will seek the best resolution possible.
Ready to Speak to an Experienced Personal Injury Lawyer in Baltimore?
Have you or a loved one been hurt due to someone else’s negligence? Contact The Law Offices of Nicholas J Del Pizzo. As your personal injury lawyer in Baltimore, you will be working with an experienced and dedicated attorney who recognizes that people have legal needs that simply do not coincide with regular business hours. We will work hard to ensure that you recover fair compensation for your car accident, medical expenses, lost wages, or benefits associated with your injury.