Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis

Medical professionals today have access to a remarkable array of diagnostic tools and treatment options. Cancer, infection, spinal cord injury, stroke, or heart attack—conditions that a few years ago would have been fatal can now often be treated successfully. Sadly, there are still many cases where a doctor's or radiologist's misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or failure to correctly diagnose a treatable condition results in serious injury or death.

At Michels & Watkins in Los Angeles our attorneys hold medical professionals accountable for negligent misdiagnosis or delay in diagnosis. If you or a member of your family has suffered serious injury when treatment was delayed or the wrong treatment was given, you deserve to know exactly what happened. If you would like to talk with a member of our medical malpractice firm, please contact our LA office and arrange a free medical/legal consultation.

Our lawyers, working with Doctor Bradley S. Davis and other members of our medical team, will review your case. They will then share with you everything they have uncovered. Whether you have a medical malpractice case or not, you will have a clear explanation of the situation. If you do hire us to represent you in a claim, you can be assured our firm will invest the resources to present a powerful case on your behalf.

Misdiagnosis can result from a doctor's lack of training, failure to consider all possible causes for symptoms, failure to order diagnostic tests, or failure to follow up on tests ordered. Emergency room or hospital mistakes leading to misdiagnosis include lab errors, misreading of x-rays or CT scan results, failure to refer to a specialist, and lost records. Failure to diagnose a maternal infection or a condition indicating the need for a cesarean section may result in a birth injury. Our lawyers have the experience and the resources to conduct a thorough investigation of circumstances surrounding your loss. Our success in representing victims of medical malpractice is documented:

Verdicts and settlements:

• Our client was a six-year old girl. Her brain tumor, located in the pituitary gland, showed up on a CT scan, but the scan was misread by a student who had not finished radiology training. As a result of the misdiagnosis the cancer, very treatable in the early stages, grew and caused permanent injury. Our lawyers recovered the highest amount ever paid in Riverside County for a child cancer case at that time, compensation that is being used to provide the girl with excellent care and a beautiful home.
• Our attorneys recovered 2.75 million dollars in a meningitis case. A twelve-year old girl went in multiple times with symptoms of meningitis. The doctor never ordered a lumbar puncture or followed up. Our client became extremely ill and suffered permanent injury.
• A young man playing ball dropped dead of a heart attack — it turned out that a previous medical exam had provided evidence the man had arterial disease and was at risk, evidence that was overlooked by the physician.

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Questions regarding a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis? Contact our LA office and arrange a free medical consultation. At Michels & Watkins our medical staff, led by Bradford S. Davis, M.D., will help you find out what went wrong. If a member of your family was injured as a result of failure to diagnose a condition, our attorneys will hold those responsible accountable. Our Los Angeles firm serves clients throughout California and surrounding states. Our staff and our lawyers provide far more than legal services, giving our clients the support they need to survive following tragic medical accidents and other acts of negligence.