New York City Misdiagnosis Lawyer

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We rely on doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals to have the answers we need and to prescribe and provide the correct treatment when we’re sick. Unfortunately, despite their extensive training and experience, doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals sometimes make mistakes. When healthcare providers make serious mistakes, such as a misdiagnosis, the result can be a severe injury, worsening of a medical condition, and other significant medical problems.

The New York medical misdiagnosis attorneys at Finz & Finz, P.C. are prepared to help you seek the compensation that you deserve for injuries and medical complications that resulted from a misdiagnosis. Our legal team includes former New York State Supreme Court Judges, highly effective trial attorneys, and an experienced and compassionate support staff. In addition, we have strong relationships with world-renowned medical experts who will analyze your misdiagnosis case and testify on your behalf at trial.

When you retain our law firm, you will know that your legal team is committed to you and your case. We will stop at nothing to help maximize your financial recovery, as evidenced by the hundreds of millions of dollars that we have recovered for our previous medical malpractice and misdiagnosed clients.

If you have any questions about your medical misdiagnosis case, please contact us today by calling our office or filling out a free and confidential case evaluation form on our contact page. We would be happy to provide you with an overview of your legal options.

Types of Medical Misdiagnosis

There are several different types of medical misdiagnosis, including:

  • Diagnosing the wrong condition – This is the most basic form of medical misdiagnosis. It occurs when a doctor diagnoses you with one illness or injury when you’re suffering from something else.
  • Missed diagnosis – A missed diagnosis occurs when a doctor or another health care provider examines you and determines that you are healthy when you’re actually sick or injured in some way.
  • Delayed diagnosis – A delayed diagnosis occurs when a doctor eventually diagnoses your condition correctly, but only after a delay in the diagnosis, and after they should have recognized your illness or injury sooner.
  • Not recognizing complications – Sometimes a doctor will make the correct diagnosis without recognizing some of the underlying factors or other complications that make the illness or injury worse or aggravate it in some way.
  • Not recognizing a related illness or injury – This occurs when a doctor correctly diagnoses one condition without recognizing another illness or injury related to the first condition. In many cases, one illness or injury can cause the onset of another medical condition, or the original illness or injury places the patient at greater risk of contracting a related disease.
  • Not recognizing an unrelated illness or injury – Sometimes a patient will have symptoms of more than one illness or injury, but a doctor only diagnoses one condition while ignoring or failing to notice another, unrelated condition.

Injuries Caused by Medical Misdiagnosis

Patients can suffer serious injuries if a medical condition is misdiagnosed.

Some of the more common injuries caused by medical misdiagnosis include:

  • Underlying conditions worsen – If you aren’t properly diagnosed, you can’t get the proper treatment you need. This will generally cause your medical condition to worsen until you are properly diagnosed and start receiving the correct treatment.
  • Adverse side effects from the wrong medications – If you are diagnosed with an incorrect illness, there’s a good chance that you will be prescribed the wrong medication for your condition. These medication errors can sometimes have severe side effects, including severe allergic reactions, and they may make your underlying condition worse.
  • Wrong surgeries – A misdiagnosis could result in an unnecessary and/or incorrect surgical procedure. This could do extensive damage to your body and cause lifelong problems.
  • Other conditions develop – Delaying treatment for your illness or getting the wrong treatment increases the likelihood that other dangerous medical conditions will develop.
  • Death – In severe cases, a medical misdiagnosis can lead to wrongful death. A common example of medical misdiagnosis leading to wrongful death is a delay in diagnosing a medical condition such as cancer, which causes the underlying condition to worsen to the point that treatment is no longer available and the patient dies.

How Do You Prove Medical Misdiagnosis in New York?

New York holding medical records, misdiagnosing patientProving a medical misdiagnosis case, or any medical malpractice case, is a challenge. Under New York law, you have to prove that the doctor, nurse, or other medical provider made a mistake and that another medical provider with similar training and experience would not have made the same mistake.

Proving a medical misdiagnosis case requires a significant amount of evidence.

Some types of evidence that a misdiagnosis attorney often uses in these cases include:

  • Lab tests and diagnostic images, such as X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and PET scans
  • Medical records
  • The doctor’s professional history, including any prior disciplinary actions taken against them
  • Testimony from medical and nonmedical expert witnesses
  • Testimony and statements from you, your family, and other treating medical professionals

What to Do If You Are Misdiagnosed

Here are the steps you should take if you think you or a loved one has been misdiagnosed:

  1. Listen to your body. Only you know if something doesn’t feel right or if you don’t feel like your treatment is helping your medical condition. Trust yourself, but stay calm
  2. Get a second opinion from another doctor.
  3. Request all of your relevant medical records from all of your doctors and other medical providers.
  4. Advocate for yourself, especially because your initial doctor may be reluctant to admit that they made an error.
  5. Talk to a New York City misdiagnosis lawyer as soon as possible.

How Common Is Medical Misdiagnosis?

Misdiagnosis errors are horrifyingly common in the United States. One widely cited study reports that about 12 million people are affected by medical diagnosis errors every year, resulting in between 40,000 and 80,000 deaths nationwide. The study also demonstrates that women are 20 to 30 percent more likely to be misdiagnosed than men.

Can You Sue for Medical Misdiagnosis in New York?

If you are a New York City resident who has suffered from a medical misdiagnosis injury, you are allowed to file a lawsuit against the health care professional responsible for your misdiagnosis, which includes doctors, nurses, hospitals, and other medical providers. However, there are numerous procedural and statutory hurdles that makes filing a medical malpractice or medical misdiagnosis lawsuit very difficult, so we strongly recommend enlisting the help of an experienced NYC medical misdiagnosis lawyer.

Finz & Finz, P.C.’s New York City misdiagnosis malpractice lawyers handle a wide range of misdiagnosis cases, including those involving:

 

  • Meningitis misdiagnosis
  • Diabetes misdiagnosis
  • Melanoma misdiagnosis
  • Leukemia misdiagnosis
  • Doctor misdiagnosis
  • Mental health misdiagnosis
  • Hospital misdiagnosis
  • Pneumonia misdiagnosis
  • Lymphoma misdiagnosis
  • HIV misdiagnosis

If you have suffered due to misdiagnosis, it is important to consult with an experienced New York misdiagnosis attorney as soon as possible because there are strict time limitations in which a misdiagnosis lawsuit must be filed under New York State law. In addition, cases involving municipal hospitals require the misdiagnosed party to file a notice of claim within 90 days of the date of the incident (or 90 days from the date of the appointment of an estate administrator in cases involving wrongful death), otherwise, the claim could be barred forever.

Our legal team understands the medical and legal complexities of medical misdiagnosis cases. We have significant resources and expertise to litigate misdiagnosis lawsuits and we will never back down when we’re fighting for our deserving clients.

With all the physical and financial costs that come with a misdiagnosis injury, you need a nationally recognized team to represent your interests when litigating against hospitals, doctors, and medical providers, most of whom are backed by major insurance companies. That is what you get when you retain the New York City medical malpractice lawyers at Finz & Finz, P.C. When you engage our misdiagnosis lawyers, you have our commitment that we will help you maximize your financial recovery.

Learn more by calling our office or filling out a case review form on our contact page. The initial consultation is free and confidential.