Ask anyone who has ever struggled with an unknown medical condition: Finding a proper diagnosis can be rough. While you might expect a hard time getting an accurate diagnosis if you happen to be a medical “zebra” with something rare, the reality is that doctors fail to correctly diagnose very common conditions disturbingly often.
What types of ordinary medical conditions get overlooked, ignored and misdiagnosed on a regular basis? Consider these:
- If you think that a cancer diagnosis is as simple as getting some blood tests done, you’re mistaken. The Journal of Clinical Oncology indicates that doctors overlook 44% of some kinds of cancer cases.
- Heart attacks. Women have a particular problem getting heart attacks diagnosed correctly because their symptoms may present in ways that aren’t “classic.” However, either gender can have symptoms that are dismissed as nothing more serious than acid indigestion or a panic attack.
- Depending on where you are, your age and your gender, a doctor may initially dismiss your stroke as something like a drug overdose, intoxication or just a bad headache.
Missed and mistaken diagnoses aren’t just frustrating for patients — they can be deadly. If a cancer patient, for example, isn’t diagnosed in a timely fashion, they may lose the last opportunity they have to get treatment that could beat their disease. Someone whose mild heart attack is overlooked could go on to have a major one just a few days later because they didn’t get treatment.
If your condition wasn’t properly diagnosed or your loved one died from a misdiagnosis, you may have the right to compensation. Find out more about your legal options today.
