Getting the wrong diagnosis, a delayed diagnosis, or not getting diagnosed at all can have a significant adverse impact on a patient’s outcome. In a situation of medical misdiagnosis, the consequences of diagnostic errors can be dire. Diagnostic errors can decrease a person’s quality of life or make the difference between life and death.
If you or a loved one was the victim of medical misdiagnosis, a Chicago medical malpractice attorney could help you hold the careless party accountable for their actions.
An Overview of Medical Diagnostic Errors
The Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality conducted research on the serious harm that can result from diagnostic errors. They found that almost three-fourths of the instances of severe harm from diagnostic errors happen in the three categories of vascular events, infections, and cancer.
Diagnostic errors can include mistakes that include the following:
- Diagnosing only one medical condition when a patient has multiple diseases or conditions.
- Testing errors that give the doctor incorrect results.
- Misinterpretation of the results of lab tests or diagnostic procedures.
- Mislabeled specimens, causing a mix-up of two or more patients’ specimens.
- False positive or false negative results.
- Failure to diagnose a medical condition that should have been recognized by the healthcare professional.
- A delayed diagnosis.
- Diagnosing the wrong condition, in other words, misidentifying the cause of the patient’s symptoms.
- Treating only isolated symptoms, rather than looking for and finding the systemic or root cause of the patient’s health challenges.
When these diagnostic errors happen, the consequences to the patient can be severe.
Consequences of Diagnostic Errors
Medical misdiagnosis can have a life-changing impact on the patient’s life. Sometimes, a diagnostic error can harm other people around the patient as well. For example, a medical mistake in diagnosing an infectious disease could cause other people to contract the infection. Also, when the wrong antibiotic or anti-viral treatment gets prescribed based on a misdiagnosis, the treatment might not work or could harm the patient instead of curing the infection.
Other adverse results of diagnostic errors can include:
- Loss of effective, less expensive, less unpleasant, and less invasive treatment options. For example, when there is a delayed cancer diagnosis, the cancer can spread to other organs and body systems. When finally diagnosed, the patient could be at a later stage of the disease (Stage 4 instead of Stage 1 or 2). The patient might no longer qualify for less invasive treatment like cryosurgery. They might have to undergo a hysterectomy, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, and have a shorter life expectancy.
- When a person does not get the correct diagnosis of a vascular issue, the result could be a strike, aneurysm, or cardiac event. For example, overlooking or misdiagnosing a blood clot in a person’s arm or leg could give the clot time to travel through the blood vessels to the heart, lungs, or brain, with catastrophic or fatal results.
A patient’s medical bills could be much higher because of the increased healthcare services needed to treat the impacts of the diagnostic error. The individual might have lost wages from when they could not work because of the medical mistake. They could endure pain and suffering, as well as less likelihood of survival.
Contact Our Medical Malpractice Attorneys in Chicago
A Chicago personal injury attorney could help you seek justice if you or a close relative was misdiagnosed or experienced another form of medical diagnostic mistake. We offer a free initial consultation with no obligation. Get in touch with our office today.