The general answer to the question above is, yes, it is possible to sue for cancer misdiagnosis. A misdiagnosis of cancer can have disfiguring and life threatening consequences whether the incorrect physician medical conclusions involved a failure to diagnose and treat an active form of cancer in the body or the improper diagnosis arose from an negligent determination of cancer when another disease or condition was in truth causing the condition complained of by the patient.
Understanding How Cancer Misdiagnosis Can Happen
Many forms of early stage cancer go undiagnosed or are misdiagnosed for the reason that the disease at that early and very treatable stage will often have almost no symptoms or few alerting diagnostic symptoms. Physician misinterpretation of test results can also lead to a failure to treat cancer in the early stages with life threatening results, or worse, the imposition of improper radical cancer treatments such as chemotherapy, radiation or surgery to address a cancer that does not in fact even exist. Radiologists often miss important diagnostic manifestations of early stage cancers resulting in an internist’s failure to be alerted to the need to treat the disease in the early stages when the personal and financial costs to the patient are still minimal.
Filing an Action for Medical Negligence
In order sue for cancer misdiagnosis the injured person needs to show evidence of medical negligence or malpractice on the part of the healthcare provider. Legally negligence is proven by a showing the following:
- A duty of care was owed the patient by the diagnosing physician
- That duty of care was breached by physician failure to conform to the relevant standard of medical care.
- The breach of the standard of care must be shown by expert testimony, or in the case of obvious errors involving res ipsa loquitur, the negligent act by the physician speaks for itself without more.
- The breach of duty caused either a direct injury or was the proximate cause of an injury to the patient.
- Damages
Getting Legal Help
If you believe that you or a loved one has suffered from a misdiagnosed or undiagnosed cancer it is important to contact a medical malpractice attorney who can thoroughly investigate the circumstances of the diagnosis to determine if there is a valid cause of action against the physician responsible for making the diagnosis to act to protect the patient’s rights.
