What Happened
According to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the number of women under 40 with breast cancer has increased by approximately 2 percent every year since the 1970s. In 2009, 2.9 out of every 100,000 women in the U.S. between the ages of 25 to 39 were diagnosed with advanced stages of breast cancer. With this increase radiologists are becoming more important than ever to discover the disease in women. However, another study has shown the medical malpractice suits are becoming more frequently filed against American radiologists for diagnostic mistakes. The study displayed information from almost 4,800 medical malpractice claims brought against 2,680 radiologists from 47 states across the country. The diagnostic errors were the most common mistakes that led to malpractice suits. The research shows that radiologists were not reporting lesions that were observed in mammography scans. When a radiologist fails to notify doctors of the lesions, the woman will be less likely to receive additional testing. This can cause women to go untreated for breast cancer, and overtime the cancer can spread making it harder to treat after it is detected and lower the chance of survival.
The Virginia Personal Injury Lawyers’ Perspective
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention breast cancer is the second most common cancer that affects women in the United States with over 211,700 women were diagnosed with breast cancer and over 40,670 deaths in the U.S. in 2009. These unbelievable numbers make it very important for woman to keep up with regular mammograms to detect breast cancer early on and raise the chances of survival.
If you have suffered complications due to a breast cancer misdiagnosis we strongly urge you to consult a Virginia (VA) medical malpractice lawyer for specific legal advice as you may be entitled to damages for the harm caused. For example each state has special rules on what is usually called “the discovery rule” which means sometimes a statute of limitations may be extended if the person could not reasonably discover that they had a case. This is important because medical malpractice actions filed in Virginia follow the general two-year statute of limitations. If you feel you are a victim of medical malpractice do not hesitate to call. We have a great deal of experience handling malpractice lawsuits with an exemplary track record in favor of our clients.
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