Misdiagnosis

Misdiagnosis and Delayed Diagnosis

In the case of a medical emergency, serious illness or childbirth, time matters.

Medical professionals have access to a remarkable array of diagnostic tools and treatment options. Cancer, strokes, heart attack — conditions that may have been fatal a decade ago can often be diagnosed early and treated successfully.

However, if the proper diagnostic tools are not used, or if the results are not reviewed promptly and interpreted correctly, the window of opportunity to provide effective treatment is closed. The patient's condition may worsen or they may even die. In childbirth situations, failure to identify fetal distress or to diagnose maternal infection can result in life-changing birth injuries or death.

At the Los Angeles law office of Michels & Watkins our medical malpractice attorneys hold medical professionals accountable for delays in diagnosis that limited treatment options and negligent misdiagnoses that lead to either incorrect treatment or a lack of treatment.

If you suspect someone was negligent in conducting tests or reviewing results, you deserve to know what happened. Contact our Los Angeles office to arrange a free consultation. If we agree to accept your case, our lawyers and our medical director Bradford S. Davis, M.D., will review your case and share everything they uncover with you. 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, you can be assured our firm will invest the necessary resources to present a powerful and persuasive case on your behalf.

How could a misdiagnosis occur?

Failure to diagnose, misdiagnosis or failure to properly assess an illness or injury can be attributed to a doctor, a nurse, a lab, a radiologist, or even substandard and inadequate hospital policies and procedures.

• Misdiagnosis can result from a doctor's failure to order the appropriate diagnostic tests, failure to review the test data, failure to interpret test data correctly, or failure to refer the patient to a specialist
• Lab, emergency room or hospital mistakes leading to misdiagnosis include lab errors, misreading of x-rays or CT scans, and lost results or medical records

Verdicts and settlements

• Our client was a six-year old girl with a brain tumor located in her pituitary gland. The tumor showed up on a CT scan, but the scan was misread by the radiologist. As a result of this misdiagnosis, a cancer that was very treatable in the early stages grew and caused permanent injury. We took this case and recovered the highest amount ever paid in Riverside County for a child cancer case (at that time). That compensation is being used to provide the girl with excellent medical care and a new home modified for her special needs.
• Our client, a twelve-year old girl, went to the doctor multiple times with symptoms of meningitis. The doctor never ordered a lumbar puncture to identify meningitis and failed to follow-up with the case. Our client became extremely ill and suffered permanent injury. Our attorneys recovered 2.75 million dollars for her continued care.
• Our client was the family of a young man who collapsed and died of a heart attack while playing ball. This premature and tragic death may have been avoided if his physician had not overlooked evidence of coronary artery disease during his medical evaluation.

Free consultations ∙ Se habla español

If a member of your family was injured as a result of failure to diagnose a condition and we take your case, our legal team and medical director will help you discover what went wrong. Contact our LA medical malpractice law office and arrange a free consultation. We serve clients throughout California, Nevada and Arizona.