Delays in diagnosis become medical malpractice when healthcare providers fail to diagnose a condition within a reasonable timeframe, resulting in direct harm to the patient. A diagnostic delay does not constitute malpractice unless it is the result of negligence and inflicts measurable losses.
There are four essential elements that must be proven in medical malpractice cases involving delayed diagnoses. Doctor-patient relationships must be established to create a duty of care. The healthcare provider must have breached this duty by failing to diagnose when a competent physician would have done so. Patient harm must have been directly caused by the delay. Lastly, the patient must be able to demonstrate actual damages that resulted from the diagnostic error.
Deficiencies in the healthcare provider's actions that result in delay in diagnosis can be considered as malpractice when they are directly harmful to the patient and could have been prevented if the diagnosis had been made sooner.
Under similar circumstances, an expert witness is usually required to demonstrate how a reasonable competent doctor would have diagnosed the condition sooner.
Your condition was likely not diagnosed sooner because your healthcare provider did not follow the accepted standard of care during the diagnostic process. A variety of reasons could have led to this, including negligence. It may have been due to these failures that your diagnosis was delayed:
Despite the fact that diagnostic delays may occur for legitimate reasons, an experienced medical malpractice attorney can determine whether negligence contributed to the delay.
You may be worried that proving your delayed diagnosis case is too difficult or that the connection between the delay and your harm isn't clear enough. This is not necessarily true. When diagnostic delays result in additional harm, healthcare providers may be liable. Having your condition diagnosed eventually does not mean that the delay was acceptable or unavoidable. If your diagnosis was delayed, you may still be able to file a claim for the additional damages and injuries.
In order to recover compensation, you must prove that negligence caused the diagnostic delay and that this delay resulted in measurable harm. We have the experience to establish these critical connections through comprehensive investigation and expert testimony. We have the expertise to demonstrate medical negligence when a delayed diagnosis causes additional harm and fault isn't immediately apparent, including:
Miami medical malpractice lawyer Sean M. Cleary investigates delayed diagnosis cases thoroughly and fights to get you the compensation you deserve. You can count on us for guidance throughout the complex process of proving your case and securing fair compensation. We can help you determine your legal options if you believe you suffered harm from a delayed diagnosis.