Is my doctor responsible for not diagnosing my cancer early enough? I have been seeing my doctor annually for 17 years, and have never heard about my symptoms being potential for cancer. However, recently I began going to another hospital for insurance reasons, and after my first visit I was diagnosed with leukemia.
The doctor told me it is late stage cancer and I will need to undergo chemotherapy. Since the cancer has been spreading for several years now, I have a very small chance of beating it. Shouldn't my original doctor have diagnosed my cancer earlier when I had a good chance at overcoming it?
Answer:
Your doctor may be held liable for failure to diagnose cancer, depending on the specific details of his treatment. In general, misdiagnosis of cancer, or a failure to diagnose cancer can be grounds for a medical negligence lawsuit if the doctor should have reasonably diagnosed the illness. Given the fact that your seeing a new doctor was the driver in your cancer being diagnosed, there may be something that your first doctor overlooked causing you leukemia to be allowed to spread.
Showing that he should have caught your leukemia earlier is difficult, however, since your new doctor did find the cancer it shows that there is potential for legal action. You will need to discuss your case with a medical malpractice attorney and an expert medical witness to discover the truth about your original treatment.
If you would like to contact a qualified medical malpractice attorney about you case, click here, otherwise check out some of the links I have included to learn more about medical negligence and medical malpractice.
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Posted by Staff Writer on 08 Feb 2010