When your health is at stake, a delayed diagnosis can cause irreversible harm. Waiting to diagnose an illness can cause symptoms to worsen, while your condition goes untreated. Preventable complications can arise from a delay in treatment, and can even endanger your life.
In more minor cases, a delayed diagnosis may keep you from beginning medication or therapy in a timely manner to ease your symptoms. In more critical cases, a delay in treatment could be deadly. If a cancer diagnosis was put off for a serious length of time, your condition may become untreatable by the time the diagnosis is made. An infection that goes undiagnosed could spread to vital organs, causing irreparable damage. It is important that your illness be diagnosed quickly and accurately.
The reasons for delayed diagnosis vary. Doctors may wish to wait to make a formal diagnosis until tests or scans have been completed or until they have done adequate research of rare conditions. Diagnosis may also be delayed due to understaffed hospitals, incompetent medical staff, mishandled tests, or more. Doctors have a duty of care to examine and test patients so they can make accurate diagnoses in a timely fashion.
If you suffer harm due to a delayed diagnosis, you may be entitled to receive compensation. Your doctor is expected to provide you with high-quality care and rule out other diagnoses through careful testing. If they fail to do so, they place your health at risk. You trust your doctor to provide you with safe, timely treatment, and their failure to do so can be devastating. An experienced medical malpractice lawyer can help you file your claim and receive compensation.
Have you suffered because of a delayed or wrong diagnosis? Our Washington DC medical malpractice lawyers are here to help. We understand the damage of a misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis. Contact The Law Offices of Dr. Michael M. Wilson, M.D., J.D & Associates today to find out how to begin your case.
Dr. Michael M. Wilson is an attorney and a physician who earned his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and his legal and medical degrees from Georgetown University. He has focused in the area of medical malpractice for more than three decades and secured more than $100 million in settlements and verdicts on behalf of clients throughout the country. He is admitted to practice in the District of Columbia and New York as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court. He is listed in America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators.
