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A Betrayal of Trust,
A Lost Chance
When you start to feel as though something may be wrong with your health, you likely will trust your instincts and turn to medical professionals for help. After medical evaluation a doctor may tell you that nothing is wrong or offers a quick fix, usually, these diagnoses can be trusted. This trust can sustain your confidence that they have taken the necessary precautions thus everything will be okay.
Delayed Cancer Diagnosis Lawyers Serving Albany, Syracuse, & Rochester
At Powers & Santola, LLP, we are dedicated to providing excellent legal representation to people who have been harmed by a needlessly delayed diagnosis of cancer. Excellence means more than knowledge and talent. It means resources and a commitment to fundamentally changing the lives of our clients and their families for the better.
We encourage you to learn more about:
- The services our lawyers provide to people who’ve been harmed by a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of cancer
- The different ways in which health care providers and doctors fail their patients
- The states that allow delayed diagnosis of cancer lawsuits
- Why it’s important to contact a lawyer sooner rather than later
Speak to our delayed cancer diagnosis attorneys today at 866-512-7445, or contact us online.
Initial consultations are free and without obligation. You are not required to know whether or not you have a delayed cancer diagnosis lawsuit, we are able to investigate and help you understand what may have happened. You don’t even have to know whether or not you have a delayed cancer diagnosis lawsuit. If our results conclude that you do have a delayed cancer diagnosis lawsuit, we handle cases on a contingency basis, meaning our attorneys only get paid if you win.
Read our Delayed Diagnosis Blogs
Can You Sue for a Delayed Prostate Cancer Diagnosis?
Posted: February 16, 2024
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers for men. According to the American Cancer Society, about 1 in 8 men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer, and 1 in 44 will die from it. However, the disease is different for each person. With less aggressive cancers, a man and his doctor might only …
Continue reading “Can You Sue for a Delayed Prostate Cancer Diagnosis?”
Early Signs of Breast Cancer which Are Easy to Miss
Posted: January 30, 2024
Each year, around 260,000 women are diagnosed with breast cancer. Their outlook varies. Some breast cancer is more aggressive than others, but any patient would benefit from early detection. When breast cancer is diagnosed early, patients have more treatment options. They also have a statistically better chance of surviving the disease. The most prominent breast …
Continue reading “Early Signs of Breast Cancer which Are Easy to Miss”
VA Ordered to Pay $975,000 for Delayed Cancer Diagnosis of Deceased New York Man
Posted: September 22, 2023
A delayed cancer diagnosis is often a death sentence for patients who do not learn the truth about their condition until it is too late. But even in cases where a health care provider admits a delay violated the accepted standard of care for the medical profession, that is not the end of the matter. …
Continue reading “VA Ordered to Pay $975,000 for Delayed Cancer Diagnosis of Deceased New York Man”
How Common Are Delayed
or Missed Cancer Diagnoses?
Patients and families who have received a late or incorrect cancer diagnosis may have many natural and pressing questions, including, “Does this happen to others?”
Even though there is no consensus on the exact figure, studies and surveys indicate that this type of tragedy occurs often in New York State and throughout the country.
If the misdiagnosis was caused by negligence on a medical professional’s part, it may be grounds for asserting a medical malpractice claim. Thus, if you or a loved one was misdiagnosed, it is advisable to not let the matter rest. You should speak with an attorney who can help you uncover who was responsible for your misdiagnosis.
How Often Do Doctors
Miss Cancer Diagnoses?
It is difficult to track the frequency of missed cancer diagnoses with any real certainty. Yet, many studies have been conducted to try and answer this question. For instance, one study in The American Journal of Medicine found the misdiagnosis rate to be 15%, while another one published in BMJ Quality and Safety estimated it to be at 28%.
However, those studies did not take into account the perspective of physicians themselves, who have unique insight into how often and why misdiagnoses occur. They also did not investigate the rate of cancer misdiagnoses specifically, which is of particular interest, since there will be a projected 1,658,370 new cancer cases in 2015 in the U.S.
In 2012, the National Coalition on Healthcare (along with Best Doctors) conducted a survey of medical professionals to try to fill in these gaps. They found that physicians believe the most commonly misdiagnosed cancers are:
Unfortunately, researchers also found that physicians tend to underestimate the rate of misdiagnosis. The majority of doctors believed that diagnostic errors in cancer cases only occur between zero and 10% of the time. However, for some types of cancers, the actual independently estimated misdiagnosis rate runs up to 44 percent. Only 1.5 percent of respondents believed that doctors misdiagnose at that high of a rate.
Why Do Doctors
Misdiagnose Cancer?
There is a multitude of reasons why a doctor might misdiagnose cancer. For one thing, they may be overconfident. It stands to reason that if doctors believe they rarely make misdiagnoses – as the 2012 study indicates – they won’t be on the lookout for common errors. This compounds the problem.
In the 2012 study, doctors themselves cited several possible reasons for why cancer misdiagnoses occur. The most common cause they pointed to was missing or fragmented information in medical information systems. In other words, if they cannot access complete and accurate information about a cancer patient, it is hard for doctors to make the best possible diagnosis.
Some doctors also believed that greater transparency within the hospital system could lead to fewer cancer misdiagnoses. They suggested treating misdiagnosis as a public health issue and creating legislation and public policy to address it. For instance, hospitals could be provided with incentives for hospitals to gather better data on misdiagnoses or to implement better reporting systems within hospitals.
Doctors also believed that poor or unavailable pathology tools (such as genetic testing and radiology resources) are sometimes to blame. This is because the interpretation of patients’ pathology requires frequent updates. Nearly half of the surveyed doctors also cited a lack of sub-specialty knowledge among pathologists, suggesting that perhaps the field of pathology may be “over-generalized.” A smaller proportion of doctors felt that not enough time was devoted to patient consultation, especially remote consultation.
Have You Been Impacted
by a Delayed or Missed Cancer Diagnosis?
Clearly, missed cancer diagnoses are a serious problem in the U.S. – even if some doctors do not realize it. We seek medical attention when something is wrong with our bodies. We have the right to expect the utmost care and diligence from our healthcare providers. Being a cancer patient is difficult enough as it is — the last thing a patient needs is to experience a delay in being diagnosed or to get an entirely incorrect diagnosis.
The law protects patients who have suffered pain, psychological damage and increased medical costs due to a missed or delayed cancer diagnosis. When a medical professional makes an error that is so severe and careless to be an act of negligence, that person may be held responsible for medical malpractice.
If you believe that you or a loved one was the victim of a delayed or missed cancer diagnosis, you should speak with a knowledgeable lawyer immediately.
At Powers & Santola, LLP, our lawyers have extensive experience with misdiagnosis cases in Albany, Syracuse, Rochester, and elsewhere in New York State. We know how to dig deep for evidence and build a strong case. We are also fully committed to improving the lives of our clients.
We can help you to negotiate the daunting process of going against a hospital in a medical malpractice case. We will support you at every step of the way. Contact us today for a free initial consultation. Even if you are unsure of whether a misdiagnosis occurred, it can only benefit you to get more information.
Call Today! (518) 465-5995
Sources
- Exploring Diagnostic Accuracy in Cancer: A Nationwide Survey of 400 Leading Cancer Specialists, National Coalition on Healthcare
- Cancer Facts & Figures 2015, American Cancer Society
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