Misdiagnosis Claims Solicitors

Doctors, nurses and surgeons are expected to diagnose a wide range of conditions and diseases, and to recognise damage caused by accidents to organs and limbs. In addition, they are required to offer appropriate treatment to their patients or refer them to someone else who can.

Broadly speaking, a misdiagnosis will fall into one of three categories:

1. A failed diagnosis, where the patient’s condition is missed altogether

2. A late diagnosis, when there is a delay in determining the patient’s condition

3. An incorrect diagnosis, or misdiagnosed condition, where another illness or injury is diagnosed instead of the one actually affecting the patient

Because the human body is complex, healthcare professionals will not get a diagnosis right every time, and the law does not expect them to, whether NHS or Private. However, what is expected is that the decisions they make and the steps they take to diagnose and treat their patients should be ‘reasonable’, and should be comparable to how other doctors or health professionals would act in a similar situation.

A medical misdiagnosis can lead to a patient receiving incorrect treatment, their treatment being delayed, or them not receiving any treatment at all.

If a healthcare professional fails to recognise your symptoms and prescribes the wrong treatment, fails to investigate appropriately, or doesn't refer you to a specialist, and you suffer as a result, the healthcare professional may be liable for medical negligence and you may be entitled to compensation due to poor medical treatment.

When we investigate a misdiagnosis claim case, we speak to relevant, impartial medical practitioners to clarify whether the actions or inactions of a healthcare professional were reasonable. If these experts determine that the professional breached their duty of care to their patient, then this can lead to a misdiagnosis case.

It is important to clarify that ‘substandard’ care is not the same as ‘suboptimal’ care. For a healthcare professional to breach their duty of care, their actions or inactions must be something that no reasonable professional in their position would have done. This doesn't often include a commonly misdiagnosed condition for example.

When considering the impact of a medical misdiagnosis, we consider three primary questions:

Extent of illness or injury

Firstly, the longer that a disease or injury is allowed to develop, the greater impact it can have on a person’s overall health. This can present them with more discomfort and challenges over time, such as:

• Movement difficulties

• Fatigue

• Breathing problems

• Additional sick days, leading to loss of earnings

• Inability to spend time with loved ones or complete daily tasks

It is important to highlight that, by the very nature of a misdiagnosis, a patient will have already been suffering from an illness or injury, and the treatment for this could require the patient to take time off work or undergo ongoing therapies.

To determine a suitable value of compensation, we will work with medical experts to establish what a patient should have experienced had they been diagnosed correctly, and what has changed as a result of their misdiagnosis.

Treatment options

Due to the delay caused by a misdiagnosis, the treatment options that were once available to a patient may no longer be applicable, and more severe treatments may be required instead.

For example, if a patient loses feeling in their foot due to a vascular occlusion, surgery may be able to open up the vessel and allow blood flow to resume. However, if a healthcare professional misdiagnoses this as another condition, by the time it is identified it may be too late to prevent the need for an amputation.

The change in treatment options can have significant consequences, from financial losses due to the patient taking more time off work to treat and recover from their condition, to the need for long-term care and therapies that may have otherwise been avoidable.

There is also the potential for a patient to receive unnecessary treatment for a condition that was wrongly diagnosed. This could result in:

• Risk of further injury as a result of the treatment

• Masking the real condition for longer, allowing its symptoms to worsen

• Impacting a person’s work or lifestyle due to the side effects of this treatment

Prognosis

The longer an illness, injury or condition is left undiagnosed, the more it can impact a person’s future wellbeing. This can include:

• Reduced life expectancy

• Needing to take regular medication or undergo frequent treatments

• Needing to use a wheelchair, crutches or other mobility aids

• Recurrences of the same or similar conditions

• Long-term psychological and emotional strain

In cases of a cancer misdiagnosis, it may take several months for a misdiagnosis to have changed someone’s prognosis or treatment options. However, in this window of time, their cancer may have progressed from surgery to remove a tumour and some radiotherapy, to a prolonged course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy to treat the issue.

In the most tragic circumstances, the cancer may progress to the stage where treatment is no longer possible.

Conversely, in circumstances such as sepsis misdiagnosis or meningitis misdiagnosis, the window for a patient’s prognosis to change is far shorter – they may progress from slightly unwell to critically ill in a number of hours.

In the majority of cases, we would expect a misdiagnosis claim to take between two and five years to reach final settlement. This will vary depending on the stance taken by the defendants, and how long it takes medical experts to determine an accurate prognosis.