October Library Items: Failure to Diagnose and Misdiagnosis | Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp

When many people think about medical malpractice, they think of surgical errors — the national stories that involve a doctor amputated the wrong foot of a patient or a physician leaving a medical instrument behind in a patient’s chest cavity. However, some of the most common medical malpractice cases don’t focus on what a doctor did wrong, but rather what a doctor didn’t do at all. Failure to diagnose cases and misdiagnosis cases are all too common in America. In fact, according to www.wrongdiagnosis.com, 20% of medical malpractice cases involve a doctor’s failure to diagnose, while 30% of medical malpractice cases involve misdiagnosis.

This month, we focused our Library Items on these two important medical malpractice types, taking a closer look at three diseases that are often misdiagnosed or missed altogether: brain tumors, breast cancer, and diabetes. We also want you to know that a failed diagnosis or misdiagnosis is just as serious as a surgical error – letting diseases or conditions worsen can lead to complications, unforeseen expenses, permanent disabilities, and even death.

Please take a few moment and read our new library items and learn more about how you can prevent a failed diagnosis or missed diagnosis:

As always, contact us if you or someone you love has been the victim of a misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose. Doctors have a responsibility to care for us and to correctly investigate our ailments – don’t continue to suffer alone.