When Massachusetts’s residents go to a doctor, they expect to leave feeling better than they were previously, not with a worsened medical condition. Though we assume they have the requisite knowledge, at the end of the day they are also human and can make human errors. The only difference is that their medical error can cost someone their life.
A delay or failure to diagnose a medical condition can result in an the progression of the disease or an injury above and beyond what would have happened if there had been a timely diagnosis. But the main legal question to assess is that how does one demonstrate that the doctor has not diagnosed a medical condition in a timely manner, when the doctor is trained to list, in the descending order of probability, the condition they think the patient may have?
In order to determine if the doctor has committed malpractice, the question to look at is what diagnosis a reasonably prudent doctor would have considered as potential causes for the doctor’s symptoms, under similar circumstances. So, some items the court considers is if the doctor failed to consider the illness on their list or listed it but failed to rule it out by performing additional tests.
Medical misdiagnosis can worsen a medical condition, which is why doctors are held responsible for their decisions. However, proving a medical malpractice case can be difficult as doctors hesitate from testifying against one another. An experienced attorney can create a strategy that can help victims prove their case and get the compensation they deserve.
