Miami Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorneys
Helping Victims of Cancer Misdiagnosis Throughout the State of Florida
The key to treating most cancers successfully is early detection followed by proper treatment. Unfortunately, if it is not detected early and diagnosed accurately, cancer can spread or metastasize, potentially making a patient’s treatment much more difficult and the prognosis much less favorable.
Cancer can be misdiagnosed or not timely diagnosed for many reasons, but a leading cause is negligence. When a doctor fails to listen to a patient’s health concerns, fails to do a complete physical exam, fails to order necessary diagnostic tests (blood, urine, radiological scans or biopsy of a tumor, among other tests), or fails to examine test results, patients can suffer the consequences of a delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis of cancer. They may require life-altering medical interventions to treat their cancer or face a poor prognosis.
If you or a loved one has been harmed by a misdiagnosis of cancer or a delayed diagnosis of cancer, you may be able to hold the negligent doctor accountable for his negligence and get compensated for medical expenses, lost wages, pain, suffering and other damages recoverable under Florida law. The experienced Florida medical malpractice attorneys at Boyers Law are committed to holding negligent doctors accountable for the harm they inflict on patients and their families and want to help answer your questions and determine your best course of action.
Common Types of Cancer Misdiagnoses in Florida Medical Malpractice Cases
Common types of cancer misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis include breast cancer, cervical cancer, pancreatic cancer, uterine cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, bladder cancer, stomach cancer, brain cancer, skin cancer and lung cancer, among others. While delayed and incorrect diagnoses may be due to unspecified symptoms in some cases, many are due to negligence and error on the part of primary care physicians, oncologists and other specialists.
Possible instances of negligence and errors that can result in a cancer misdiagnosis include the failure to:
- Take a complete and accurate medical history
- Collect specific genetic information about the patient
- Spend adequate time analyzing signs and symptoms
- Communicate medical information correctly
- Order relevant, appropriate tests to detect the cancer
- Interpret test results accurately
- Refer a patient to an appropriate, experienced specialist
Another possible cause of a missed or delayed diagnosis is an inaccurate interpretation of pathology samples due to a pathologist’s lack of expertise or negligence. In this case or in any case of cancer misdiagnosis, an experienced Florida medical malpractice attorney from Boyers Law Group can help you obtain your medical records and secure the opinions of top medical experts to determine whether and why there was a negligent misdiagnosis or negligently delayed diagnosis of cancer.
Florida Medical Malpractice Lawsuits for Cancer Misdiagnoses
If a physician failed to diagnose or misdiagnosed cancer and the misdiagnosis caused you or a family member harm, then you may be entitled to recover compensation for damages. With a medical malpractice lawsuit, you can hold doctors, hospitals and other medical care providers accountable for their errors and obtain substantial compensation for physical and mental pain and suffering, impaired quality of life, scarring and disfigurement, disability, medical expenses, lost wages and other damages. When a misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis leads to the death of a loved one, spouses, children and parents may be able to recover wrongful death damages for mental anguish, lost affection and companionship, as well as lost services and support and under applicable damages under Florida law. .
An explicit or implicit defense we often hear in these cases is that the physician did not cause the cancer, so he should not be held responsible for the consequences of this life-threatening illness. While it is true that doctors do not cause cancer, the key to successfully treating most cancers is early detection followed by proper treatment. If a doctor’s or other healthcare provider’s error led to a late diagnosis or misdiagnosis and failure to treat the cancer, which ultimately led to the need for life-altering treatment, pain, suffering, and possibly even death, then they can and should be held accountable for their negligence.
The Experienced Florida Medical Malpractice Attorneys of Boyers Law Are Committed to Helping Victims of Cancer Misdiagnoses
If you or a family member has suffered because cancer was misdiagnosed or not timely diagnosed, you need a highly skilled trial attorney with experience in successfully litigating and tryingmedical malpractice cases. At Boyers Law Group, we will put our considerable resources, experience, knowledge, skill and tireless work ethic to work for you to hold all negligent medical care providers accountable for the harm that they cause.
Our team of exceptionally skilled lawyers (meet Senior Partner Robert Boyers and Partner Matt Mazzarella) and paralegals will do everything in their power to achieve the best possible results for the firm’s clients either by settlement or by obtaining a verdict at trial. We use all of our firm’s experience, talent, hard work and resources to prove that the healthcare defendants are wrong, and our clients are right and justly entitled to a substantial compensatory verdict in their favor.
We are committed to helping those who have suffered harm or lost a loved one due to a misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of cancer. Please call us at 800.545.9100 or submit the “Tell Us What Happened” form on our website to speak with an experienced Florida medical malpractice attorney about your case.
Helpful Resources:
Singh H., Meyer A.N.D., & Thomas E.J. (2014). BMJ Quality & Safety. 2014; 23:727–731.
https://qualitysafety.bmj.com/content/qhc/23/9/727.full.pdf
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2015). Improving diagnosis in health care. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
https://doi.org/10.17226/21794
Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine. (2019). What is diagnostic error?
https://www.improvediagnosis.org/what-is-diagnostic-error/