Can You Sue a Doctor for Misdiagnosis?

Medical doctors include family physicians and specialists who treat specific medical conditions. Whether you’re seeing your family doctor or a specialist, you expect the doctor to take appropriate steps to assess your health and provide an accurate diagnosis.

Despite these expectations, medical professionals misdiagnose approximately 11% of patients annually. Even allowing for follow-up appointments, routine check-ups, and referrals, the one billion annual physician appointments in the U.S. could result in millions of misdiagnoses yearly. 

A misdiagnosis can prolong your health issues. For approximately 795,000 patients each year, medical misdiagnosis leads to disability or death. If you or a loved one has been misdiagnosed, you may wonder if you can sue a doctor for misdiagnosis. Let’s examine your legal options and how to prove a misdiagnosis claim. 

What is a misdiagnosis? 

Medical misdiagnosis can result in physical and financial difficulties by prolonging a person’s symptoms, delaying treatment until it’s ineffective, or allowing the condition to worsen. Hence, it costs more money and takes longer to treat. A patient has been misdiagnosed if one of the following occurs:

• The patient doesn’t receive a diagnosis
• The patient is told they have a condition they do not have
• The patient receives a delayed diagnosis

Common misdiagnosed conditions

Some health issues share symptoms with other conditions, making them difficult to diagnose. There are also conditions it isn’t easy to test for, which can cause delayed or inaccurate diagnoses.

Commonly misdiagnosed conditions include the following:

• Appendicitis
• Bowel damage
• Brain damage
• Cancer
• Celiac disease
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Encephalitis
• Endometriosis
• Fibromyalgia
• Fractures
• Hyperthyroidism
• Hypothyroidism
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Lupus
• Lyme disease
• Meningitis
• Multiple sclerosis
• Nerve damage
• Parkinson’s disease
• Polycystic ovary syndrome
• Sepsis
• Sleep apnea

Cancer misdiagnosis accounts for 38% of all misdiagnoses. Heart attacks and strokes are also often misdiagnosed.

How do failures to diagnose claims happen?

Failure to diagnose claims apply when a doctor ignores a patient’s symptoms or fails to take reasonable steps to provide a diagnosis. Suppose you go to your family doctor complaining you’re having diarrhea and going to the bathroom more than usual. Your doctor could think you have irritable bowel syndrome because you have a parent with this condition, and it can be genetic. You follow their dietary recommendations, start exercising, and learn to manage your stress, but your condition worsens. Despite reporting new symptoms, your doctor won’t order tests to rule out other potential diagnoses.

You go to another doctor for a second opinion. That doctor orders tests, and you learn you have bowel cancer. In such situations, you have grounds for a medical malpractice case against your primary care doctor for failure to diagnose. 

Can you sue a doctor for misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose?

Florida allows patients two years to file a medical malpractice claim if they suffered because of a misdiagnosis. You can sue one or more medical professionals for misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose. Sometimes, patients receive primary care from nurse practitioners, who can also be held liable for a malpractice claim.

Who can be held liable in a misdiagnosis case?

A doctor, specialist, or nurse practitioner can be liable for misdiagnosing patients. Medical testing professionals, such as radiologic and MRI technologists, could be responsible if they made errors or oversights during testing, preventing you from receiving a correct, timely diagnosis.

Related: The Physician-Patient Privilege in Wrongful Death Actions

Can you sue a hospital for misdiagnosis?

You may have grounds to pursue a claim against a hospital or other medical facility if their negligence contributed to your misdiagnosis. Suppose hospital administrators know their MRI machine is damaged and not generating complete images. The administrators don’t want to pay for a new machine until the next fiscal year but still schedule patient MRIs with the broken scanner. That’s one example of a situation justifying a medical malpractice claim against a hospital.  

How do you prove a misdiagnosis? 

Proving a misdiagnosis can be complex. You must show that the medical professional or facility failed to take reasonable steps to ensure an accurate diagnosis. What’s considered reasonable is how most medical professionals or facilities would act under the same circumstances.

You must also show that the misdiagnosis caused harm. This means proving it caused pain, resulted in unnecessary treatments and expenses, or allowed your condition to worsen to the point where you became disabled or received a terminal diagnosis.

The best way to build a misdiagnosis case begins with hiring a medical malpractice attorney. Your attorney understands the distinctions between medical malpractice and negligence and how to prepare a compelling case justifying damages. Medical malpractice attorneys investigate and gather evidence, subpoenaing records and other relevant materials that support your claim.

What damages can be recovered for a misdiagnosis?

Medical professionals and facilities carry medical malpractice insurance to pay damages when required. Victims may seek a judgment in court or reach a settlement during negotiations. Medical malpractice victims can seek the following damages:

• Economic damages, such as:
  • Childcare expenses
  • Funeral and burial costs
  • Lost wages
  • Medical expenses 
• Non-economic damages, such as:
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Grief
  • Loss of consortium
  • Pain and suffering
  • Trauma

Some victims can also seek punitive damages.

Let the experienced medical malpractice attorneys at Bernstein & Maryanoff Injury Attorneys help you

Medical malpractice cases can be challenging. When you trust Bernstein & Maryanoff Injury Attorneys with your claim, you receive expert legal guidance from Miami’s top medical malpractice attorneys. We’ll gather the evidence to support your claim and hold those responsible accountable for your misdiagnosis. 

Contact Bernstein & Maryanoff Injury Attorneys to find out how we can help with your medical malpractice claim.

Sources:

Ambulatory Care Use and Physician office visits. (2023). 

Crino, K. (2023). Commonly Misdiagnosed Conditions and How to Avoid Misdiagnosis. 

Irritable Bowel Syndrome.O’Mary, L. (2023).

Misdiagnosis Seriously Harms 795,000 People Annually: Study.