Misdiagnosis

Many medical malpractice lawsuits arise out of a doctor's failure to correctly diagnose a medical condition or illness. In some cases, a misdiagnosis results in improper medication or treatment, or a lack of treatment, and these can cause a worsening of the condition or even death in some cases. In most cases, you will need an experienced medical malpractice attorney to consult with an expert physician and determine whether you may have a claim. At Neumann Law Group, Kelly Neumann is an award-winning Detroit, Traverse City, and Grand Rapids misdiagnosis lawyer. Each year for the past several years, she has secured more than $3 million in personal injury cases.

To prove that a misdiagnosis was medical malpractice, you will have to prove that there was a doctor-patient relationship, your doctor did not provide treatment according to the appropriate standard of care, your doctor's failure to meet the standard of care caused your injuries, and you incurred actual damages.

Generally, doctors make diagnoses by using a differential diagnosis method. This is a systematic approach in which a doctor makes a list of diagnoses, ordering them based on their probability. The doctor tests the likelihood of each diagnosis, sometimes by asking further questions about medical history, ordering more tests, or sending the patient to a specialist. In this manner, the doctor can rule out certain diagnoses, and ideally only the correct diagnosis is left at the end. When actionable misdiagnosis occurs, it is often because a doctor failed to include the correct diagnosis on the original list when a reasonably competent doctor would have included it, or the doctor failed to test the correct diagnosis appropriately. For example, based on a patient's age, a doctor may have ruled out a correct diagnosis of cancer without realizing he should seek an opinion from an oncologist.

A misdiagnosis must actually cause harm to a patient in order to be considered medical malpractice. For example, a patient would need to show that because of a misdiagnosis when the correct diagnosis was AIDS, he was forced to undergo more substantial treatment, or his family would need to show that the misdiagnosis caused his death.

In Michigan, you need to file a misdiagnosis claim within the statute of limitations provided for medical malpractice, or you likely will lose your ability to recover compensation. This means that you must file your lawsuit within two years of the misdiagnosis, or within six months of discovering the misdiagnosis if it was not discovered until later. Under no circumstances can you bring your case more than six years after the misdiagnosis.

Nobody expects to be harmed when they go to a doctor for diagnosis and treatment. If you have been hurt because of the negligence of a health care provider, the Detroit, Grand Rapids, and Traverse City misdiagnosis attorneys at Neumann Law Group may be able to help you recover the compensation you need and deserve. We represent injured individuals in Petoskey, Warren, Holland, Midland, Muskegon, Saginaw, Wyoming, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Flint, Ann Arbor, and throughout the Upper Peninsula. Contact us at 800-525-NEUMANN or via our online form for a free consultation with an injury attorney. We also represent people in Massachusetts and California.