Medical Malpractice: Failure to Diagnose

The majority of medical malpractice cases are not actually the result of a doctor doing direct harm to a patient, but rather, a doctor failing to do something. When a doctor is presented with symptoms that a patient has but fails to perform the necessary testing or ask the necessary questions to determine what the disease or disorder may be, he or she may be guilty of failure to diagnose. Failure to diagnose can be a particularly devastating issue in cases that involve time-sensitive illness such as cancer. The failure to diagnose may result in the loss of invaluable treatment time.

Failure to diagnose makes up a shocking 40 percent of medical malpractice lawsuits. If you or someone you love has been the victim of a negligent doctor who failed to diagnose a disease or disorder, contact your Iowa lawyers at LaMarca & Landry, P.C. today at 877-327-2600.

Who Can Be Held Responsible for Failure to Diagnose

Early detection is the key to treating many forms of aggressive cancer. If a doctor does not catch cancer in its early stages when a patient first complains of certain symptoms, the patient may no longer have a chance of beating it.

But doctors are not the only ones who are responsible for diagnosing certain disorders in patients. Those who can be sued for failure to diagnose include:

• Doctors
• Nurse practitioners
• Dentists

These medical professionals should be held to certain standards of care, and when they fail to perform to the acceptable standards of their professions, they should be held accountable.

Contact Us

If you or someone you love has been the victim of a medical professional who failed to diagnose a serious ailment, contact your Iowa lawyers of LaMarca & Landry, P.C. at 877-327-2600 today.