What Happens When A Doctor Fails to Diagnose?

We put a lot of trust in our doctors. We trust them to find what’s wrong with us when we are unsure what our symptoms mean. Unfortunately doctors don’t always have all the answers. A doctor will likely need to run a number of tests, such as an MRI or a biopsy, to diagnose a condition such as cancer. Not running these tests in a timely manner can lead to a delayed diagnosis or a failure to diagnose cancer in a timely manner. Sometimes a failure to diagnose cancer or other serious disease in a timely manner can mean the difference between life and death.

Saying a doctor is negligent in failing to diagnose a condition in a timely manner may be difficult to prove. If it’s a rare condition that is hard to diagnose and your doctor takes all of the appropriate steps to find the correct diagnosis, he may be less guilty of failing to diagnose. But, if your doctor dismisses your symptoms and does not perform the proper tests to rule out a serious condition and you suffer serious injuries that could have otherwise been prevented, your doctor was negligent in his or her failure to diagnose your condition.

With a condition such as cancer, early detection may be the key to survival. Patients who are diagnosed and receive treatment at stage I can have a higher survival rate than those diagnosed at stage IV.

Patients whose lives were cut short because a doctor failed to timely diagnose cancer, or patients who suffered serious life threatening injuries because a doctor failed to diagnose a heart attack or an infection may qualify to file a failure to diagnose lawsuit against the negligent physician.