It is an important part of a healthcare provider’s job to diagnose injuries and illnesses in a timely manner. It is particularly important in cases involving cancer, where treatment often must begin right away to increased the likelihood of a positive prognosis or outcome. Those who go undiagnosed may miss their window of opportunity to adequately fight a potentially lethal disease. Those who are misdiagnosed or undiagnosed may waste precious time receiving the wrong kind of or no treatment. In either case, the patient’s chances of survival may be greatly diminished.
Medical malpractice claims involving cancer diagnosis often involve a failure to perform proper and timely tests. Such claims may also involve a failure to properly interpret test results. These shortcomings may result in misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis.
In a 2013 John Hopkins Hospital study, tissue samples from 6,000 cancer patients were reviewed, and it was discovered that one in every 71 cases was misdiagnosed or undiagnosed. Furthermore, up to one out of five cancer cases were misclassified as the wrong type or stage.
There are legal remedies available for victims of cancer misdiagnosis or untimely diagnosis, and for the families of victims who have died, or will, as a result of such negligence. If you have been the victim of cancer misdiagnosis, it is important that you contact a Jersey medical malpractice attorney with significant experience in handling similar cases. Please call the cancer misdiagnosis lawyers at Blume Forte for a no-cost consultation.