Delayed Diagnosis of Cancer is Medical Malpractice
What is Medical Malpractice?
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional fails to do what they are required to do based on the established rules within the medical community. The rules are called the standard of care. When a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional does not follow the established rules within the medical community, the doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional has not met or has breached, the standard of care. The breach of the standard of care by a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional can cause severe injury and even death to the patient.
Diagnosis of Cancer
Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals are required to know the symptoms and warning signs associated with cancer. Common symptoms may include pain, fatigue, unexplained weight loss, fever, and unusual bleeding. When a patient reports these symptoms or similar symptoms to a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional, they are required to conduct necessary exams, order appropriate tests or imaging studies, accurately read the tests and imaging studies, and prescribe treatment as necessary to either diagnose, rule out or treat cancer.
Doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals may go through what is called a differential diagnosis. A differential diagnosis is when a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional considers all of the symptoms a patient has and determines what is the most likely cause of those symptoms based on the symptoms, the patient’s medical history, laboratory tests or imaging studies, and the physical exam. When a doctor, nurse, or other healthcare professional does not recognize the symptoms associated with cancer and does not do what is required of them to test for and diagnose cancer, or misdiagnoses the cancer, that leads to a delayed diagnosis of cancer.
