Diagnostic Errors Can Have Significant Repercussions On Your Health

The United States has the most advanced medical science in the world, but unfortunately, human error can cheat a patient out of the hope that science provides. Reliable treatments exist today for a wide range of diseases that were death sentences just a generation ago. Diagnostic tools can detect potentially deadly diseases in their first stages, when they are most treatable. But for diagnostic testing and advanced treatments to be effective, physicians must order the appropriate tests and treatments in a timely manner.

Each year, thousands of patients suffer injury and even death, because physicians and medical technicians make diagnostic errors. For more than 30 years, the medical malpractice attorneys at Dillon Findley & Simonian, P.C., have helped Alaskans recover compensation for the harm caused by these types of medical mistakes.

• Failure to diagnose – When symptoms present in such an obvious manner that a competent physician would recognize the potential presence of disease but the physician does not act to provide reasonable care, the physician may be negligent.
• Misdiagnosis – When symptoms present in such a manner that a competent physician would recognize a range of probable causes but he or she orders treatment for the wrong condition, the physician may be liable for a misdiagnosis.
• Delayed diagnosis – When a physician does not act responsibly to gather the medical data in a timely manner to determine the nature of a patient’s illness, the physician may be liable for harm due to the delay in determining a course of treatment.
• Failure to order appropriate tests – When a physician fails to adhere to accepted medical protocols for testing to determine the nature or extent of a disease, that physician may be liable for any harm done to the patient because of a delay in diagnosis and treatment.
• Improper execution of diagnostic tests – Technicians may perform the wrong test, test the wrong area of the body or perform the ordered tests on the wrong patient, causing a misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis or a complete failure to diagnose.
• Misreading the results of diagnostic testing – Even when tests are properly executed, they must still be read by attentive, competent professionals. When test results are misread or ignored, medical providers may be liable for the harm to the patient caused by misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis.

Pursuing Compensation For Diagnostic Errors

While a failure to diagnose may be easy or difficult to prove, what is always complex is proving the degree of harm the failure caused. Patients who already have heart disease or cancer are at risk even if they get prompt attention. The extent to which a delay in discovering and treating the illness worsened the condition and caused additional harm is often a matter of conjecture. Under those circumstances, a patient benefits from partnering with an experienced malpractice law firm. Dillon Findley & Simonian, P.C. has the legal and financial resources to uncover the extent of injury stemming from medical and surgical mistakes that require extensive investigation and expert analysis.

Contact Our Experienced Medical Malpractice Attorneys

Dillon Findley & Simonian, P.C. serves all of Alaska. For cases of diagnostic error, our firm advances all litigation costs. You do not pay our attorney fees unless the case resolves favorably.

Call our Anchorage office at 907-519-0668 to schedule an initial case consultation. You can also contact us online.