Hagerstown Maryland Medical Malpractice Attorney
Although a cancer diagnosis is always frightening, many types of cancer can be treated successfully if caught in the early stages. Failure to diagnose cancer or a delayed diagnosis of cancer can significantly reduce your chance of survival, require more aggressive and painful treatments, and often leads to preventable early death. Victims of medical malpractice and their loved ones may be entitled to compensation through a personal injury or wrongful death lawsuit.
How Cancer Goes Undetected
Patients sometimes see a doctor specifically due to symptoms of cancer, but most cancer is detected during routine check-ups and tests that doctors now recommend at certain ages and when certain risk factors are present to facilitate early detection. Mistakes that lead to failure to diagnose cancer or a delayed diagnosis of cancer include:
- Failure to respond to symptoms reported by patient
- Failure to recognize or respond to risk factors
- Failure to recognize or respond to early warning signs
- Failure to order or recommend tests due to concerns about the patient’s ability to pay
- Improper blood and tissue sampling
- Improper reading of tests
- Failure to follow up with patient
Consequences of Failure to Diagnose Cancer
When cancer goes undiagnosed or diagnosis is delayed the consequences can be devastating to victims and their families. The results can include:
- More invasive treatment
- More aggressive treatment
- More expensive treatment
- Significantly more pain
- Scaring and disfigurement
- Unnecessary damage to overall health
- Long-term disability
- Loss of income
- Premature death
Failure to Diagnose Cancer and Delayed Diagnosis Can Be Fatal
As cancer is allowed to progress and spread the ability to treat it successfully diminishes. The cancer itself is allowed to do damage and the treatments required become more dangerous and damaging to the body. Once cancer has progressed beyond a certain stage, some treatments are no longer useful at all. Failure to diagnose cancer can be fatal in many ways:
- Risky, life-threatening surgery becomes the only treatment option still available
- Only part of the cancer can be removed
- Chemotherapy and/or radiation treatments must be so aggressive to have a chance of working that they become fatal
- Cancer can no longer be removed and treatments can only stop or slow the progression temporarily
- Treatment is no longer an option at all