Available 24/7 • More Than 31 Years Experience • Serving Louisville and Lexington
call white502-253-9110
sub-hero

Failure to Diagnose

At Wilt Injury Lawyers, we take care of our clients like we take care of our family. Schedule a free consultation with us today so you can get the help you deserve.

Schedule A Free Consultation View Case Results

Failure to Diagnose Lawyers in Louisville, KY

A proper and timely diagnosis is the best way to treat your medical problem. When you visit a physician and explain your symptoms, you can expect your doctor to perform the appropriate diagnostic tests or procedures to determine a diagnosis. When a doctor fails to diagnose you properly, misdiagnoses your condition, or does not diagnose your condition in a timely manner, you may have experienced medical malpractice.

Unfortunately, medical mistakes and negligence are far more common than you think. Whether you were misdiagnosed, became ill, or were injured due to a lack of proper diagnosis, our qualified personal injury lawyers can help hold the right parties responsible. Contact our attorneys in Lexington or Louisville today.

You Have Questions. We Have Answers.

What Does Failure to Diagnose Mean?

When discussing “failure to diagnose,” we discuss three different scenarios.

Failure to diagnose is exactly what it sounds like – when a physician or other healthcare provider fails to identify your condition and you suffer injury as a result. Misdiagnosis is similar in that you are diagnosed with the wrong condition, allowing your actual condition to progress. Delayed diagnosis happens when your doctor takes a significantly long time to provide an accurate diagnosis, causing unnecessary harm. All of these fall under the umbrella of Kentucky medical malpractice.

In other words, when a healthcare provider is sued for medical malpractice for failure to diagnose, this means that the provider failed to diagnose a patient with an injury or illness when another healthcare provider, equally as educated and experienced, would not have made a mistake.

Failure to diagnose may sound uncommon, but you might be surprised at how often physicians and other healthcare providers write off a patient’s symptoms or refuse to perform diagnostic testing to address the patient’s concerns.

If this has happened to you or a loved one, contact our Kentucky law firm today.

Types of Diagnostic Errors

Healthline reports that, in the US, 12 million people suffer the effects of medical misdiagnosis every year. Further, between 40,000 and 80,000 people die from these errors, with women and minorities at a higher risk of being misdiagnosed. Per Healthline, diagnostic errors are:

…[A]n under-discussed issue that touches all aspects of the healthcare field — from physicians and healthcare systems themselves to, most crucially, the patients whose lives might be on the line as a result of an inaccurate initial diagnosis… Tackling how to make diagnostic errors less common means tackling everything from human mistakes to traditional but flawed procedures for treating and diagnosing conditions.

Our experienced Kentucky malpractice attorneys help adults and children who have suffered severe injury due to undiagnosed or misdiagnosed conditions like:

  • Cancer
  • Aneurysms
  • Heart attacks
  • Strokes
  • Blood clots/DVTs
  • Pulmonary embolisms
  • Infections
  • Ectopic pregnancies
  • Heart defects
  • Cardiac issues
  • Meningitis
  • Birth injuries

How to Prove Your Failure to Diagnose Case

As with all medical malpractice cases, the success of your claim hinges on whether or not your healthcare provider violated what’s called a standard of care.

The medical standard of care is the basis for any medical malpractice lawsuit. Essentially, these are the decisions that any reasonably competent medical professional would have made in any given medical situation. A breach of this standard of care warrants the pursuit of your medical malpractice claim.

For example, if Physician A fails to treat or diagnose a medical condition that Physician B (of similar education, training, and experience) would have, Physician A could be subject to a medical malpractice lawsuit, especially when the patient ends up experiencing injury and harm.

Medical malpractice cases are some of Kentucky’s most complex types of personal injury cases. Although it is not a legal requirement to enlist a medical malpractice lawyer, having a reputable attorney with experience litigating these types of cases could make all the difference in the outcome of your case.

This is particularly true when you feel overwhelmed about filing a lawsuit against a seemingly powerful medical professional or hospital. Your attorney can handle all the legal details of your case, gather evidence, negotiate with the insurance company, and represent your best interests in court, should it become necessary.

Once you have decided to hire an attorney, your lawyer can start on your case. The first step is reviewing all the details of your illness or injury. This includes your medical records and the mistakes your healthcare provider made. From there, we’ll gather the evidence to support your case, including medical documentation, witness statements, expert testimony, photographs, and more.

Next, we negotiate with the insurance company to determine whether we can obtain a reasonable insurance settlement. In many cases, even if we can get a settlement from the insurance company, it likely won’t come close to the full extent of your losses. In these situations, we will then prepare to bring your case to trial to maximize the settlement and ensure you secure the compensation and justice you are entitled to. Talk to Wilt Injury Lawyers today.

How Long Will a Malpractice Case Take in Kentucky?

Our clients often have questions regarding the length of their medical malpractice lawsuit, and it makes sense. When you’ve already been victimized by your physician, surgeon, or other medical professional, the last thing you need is a lengthy, drawn-out personal injury lawsuit taking more of your time and energy.

The amount of time it will take to resolve your medical malpractice lawsuit largely depends on the circumstances of your case, such as how severe your injury or illness was, the severity of the mistake, and several other contributing factors. Your attorney will need to thoroughly investigate and review your medical records and other details of your case to build a compelling lawsuit.

Along the way, our Kentucky attorneys also gather the evidence we need to support your medical malpractice lawsuit so it can be used against the liable party in the negotiations with the insurance company and in court. This process can take months or longer, based on the complexity of your case.

Negotiating with the insurance company and/or going to court could also take a considerable amount of time. Seeking compensation through a medical malpractice lawsuit is not easy, but if your attorney is diligent and works to build a powerful lawsuit, it may be worth the effort in the end.

Obtaining an insurance settlement may be a faster way to secure compensation, but going to trial could yield more favorable results, even though these cases could take years to resolve. Your best bet is to meet with one of our attorneys in a no-risk personal consultation to discuss the details of your potential case. We want to help.

Do you have a failure to diagnose attorney near me?

Wilt Injury Lawyers has offices in Louisville and Lexington:

Louisville Office

13113 Eastpoint Park Blvd. Suite A Louisville, KY 40223
Phone: 502-253-9110

Arrow
Lexington Office

196 W. Lowry Lane, Suite 1 Lexington, KY 40503
Phone: 859-263-8818

Arrow