Cancer diagnosed in the early stages can be successfully treated and actually eradicated. Any doctor will tell you that early detection is crucial in winning the cancer battle. As patients with no medical training, we must rely on physicians and their expertise to identify warning signs of cancer.
A Doctor’s Responsibility
What happens when a doctor fails to catch signs of cancer and the cancer cells are allowed to spread, turning a once healthy body into a picture of failing health? Cancer victims who are eventually diagnosed with late-stage cancer feel robbed of a future and devoid of hope. They knew something was wrong and they did the right thing by seeking medical attention. The doctors they trusted let them down. What they may not know is that a physician’s failure to catch cancer warning signs may actually be a form of medical malpractice.
Negligence as a Violation of Rights
Medical malpractice does not only describe a doctor’s mistake that causes unnecessary harm, it also encompasses negligence in the form of failure to diagnose diseases like cancer. Many cancer patients and their families are surprised to learn that failure to diagnose is one of the most common types of medical malpractice today.
Whether a doctor simply missed cancer markers altogether or misdiagnosed the cancer as another type of health problem, he or she may be held legally responsible for this potentially grave mistake. Upon thorough investigation into failure to diagnose cancer cases, medical malpractice attorneys often discover elements like fatigue, drug or alcohol abuse, profit-driven rushed visits, and other careless practices.
Hiring an Attorney
If your loved one is suffering from lung cancer, breast cancer, skin cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, or any other type of cancer and you believe a physician was negligent in the diagnostic process, your family may be entitled to money damages based on the devastating harm that resulted from incorrect or missed diagnosis.
Highly experienced medical malpractice attorneys will consult with medical experts and radiologists to show that the physician violated accepted standards of care through their negligent behavior. They also seek advice from financial analysts to help families put a dollar amount to the devastating consequences of a missed cancer diagnosis.