It goes without saying that when patients visit doctors, they expect their conditions to be taken seriously, as they know doctors know best. It is also their right to be heard and treated as a potential patient. However, there have been multiple cases of patients, specifically women, who’ve complained about being ignored and not taken seriously, patronized, and, a lot of the time, accused of lying about their issues.
Sometimes, even when medical experts attempt to diagnose conditions, they end up making mistakes and failing to diagnose the actual condition. Failure to diagnose is an illegal act that can be filed under a medical malpractice claim. If you or your loved one has suffered from this, please read on to learn more. This article talks about some commonly misdiagnosed conditions.
Conditions that medical experts often misdiagnose
Our medical malpractice lawyers have helped patients who suffered from undiagnosed:
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Cancer
To detect cancer, patients are usually put through an X-ray, CT scan, or MRI. A general physician performs these scans. The general physician then forwards the scan results to a diagnostic laboratory technician who interprets the results and determines if there are any cancerous tumors inside the patient’s body. Failure to do these properly can result in either misdiagnosis or failure of diagnosis of cancer.
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Heart Attacks
When doctors do not conduct an EKG as a patient should be getting or check patients’ cardiac enzyme levels to determine the possibility of a heart attack, it can come under medical malpractice as these are integral evaluations a patient is entitled to. Other forms of malpractice in diagnosing or preventing damages caused by heart attacks include doctors not providing catheterization or stent placement needed to mitigate damage caused by heart attacks.
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Brain Abscess
Brain abscess is controllable with correct treatment and care. So, failing to diagnose it due to some form of negligence prevents patients from getting treatment and healing and also potentially puts their lives at risk as brain abscess, left untreated, can turn into a life-threatening condition.
To treat brain abscesses, doctors typically draw the fluid in the abscess with a needle. To keep the patient safe from infections, doctors provide them with antibiotics and sometimes steroids to help alleviate pain.
Some other conditions that doctors may misdiagnose or ignore entirely are:
- Appendicitis
- Lyme disease
- Strokes
- Pulmonary embolisms
- Epidural abscesses like cervical abscesses and spinal abscesses
Most of these conditions can turn fatal for patients if they are left untreated. The first step to treat a condition is to diagnose it. A doctor takes away the privilege of a patient getting treatment for their condition when they fail to diagnose them for the condition.
