Houston Medical Misdiagnosis Attorneys

What is a Medical Misdiagnosis?

A medical misdiagnosis is a healthcare provider’s misidentification of their patient’s condition, late diagnosis of the correct condition, or failure to notice anything is wrong with their patient. A medical misdiagnosis can cause a patient to suffer increased pain, an extended period of adverse health complications, and the worsening of an illness or medical condition that can render treatments less effective.

Common Medical Conditions Misdiagnosed

A medical professional might misdiagnose a condition that has hard-to-identify symptoms or shares symptoms with other, more common conditions. Conditions and illnesses frequently involved in cases of medical misdiagnosis include:

• Cancer, including breast cancer, cervical cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer
• Stroke and heart attack
• Lyme disease
• Fibromyalgia
• Celiac disease
• Irritable bowel syndrome
• Carpal tunnel syndrome
• Lupus
• Multiple sclerosis
• Appendicitis
• Hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism
• Pulmonary embolism
• Chronic fatigue syndrome

How to Prove Medical Misdiagnosis and Negligence

Correctly diagnosing certain conditions can be challenging for even the best-trained and most experienced medical professionals, and not all diagnostic errors rise to the level of negligence. However, doctors must order tests and interpret their results carefully, and their failure to exercise this duty can make them liable for an avoidable misdiagnosis. Proving that a medical professional’s negligence was to blame for your misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis, or failure to diagnose will require strong evidence, such as:

• Your medical records
• Progress charts
• Prescription records
• Diagnostic test results, including lab results and radiology scans
• Staffing records
• Provider notes
• Surveillance video
• Eyewitness testimony

You will also need written reports and testimony from a medical expert in the same profession and specialty as the provider who misdiagnosed you to prove your misdiagnosis claim. Your medical expert will give their opinion on the applicable standard of care in your case, a term describing the treatment decisions other providers of similar training and experience would have undertaken in circumstances identical to yours. The expert will also explain how your provider’s conduct failed to meet the standard of care and how your provider’s breach of the standard of care led to the misdiagnosis.