When a Houston resident visits the doctor they likely assume their medical provider will be able to accurately diagnose their condition and offer appropriate treatment. Many times this is the case but occasionally a doctor makes a mistake. The failure to recognize a serious condition can lead to a patient not receiving treatment early on for the disease when the disease may be curable. It can therefore lead to a patient’s worsened condition and even death.
Cancer is a 6 letter word that no one ever want to hear they have been diagnosed with. Fortunately, many times if a person receives an early diagnosis, their prognosis is good. But a failure to diagnose cancer, as with the failure to recognize other serious conditions, can have devastating consequences.
Inflammatory breast cancer is a cancer that is often misdiagnosed by a medical provider. The symptoms of this aggressive cancer include tenderness, redness, swelling, a rash and pain in the breast. Although this type of cancer is rare it is aggressive and needs to be diagnosed early on for a patient to receive the best treatment. Many times doctors misdiagnose this condition causing a person to lose valuable time that could have been devoted to treatment and by the time a person has been diagnosed the cancer has metastasized to other areas of the body.
If a family believes their loved one’s cancer was misdiagnosed by a medical professional they may want to speak with a legal professional skilled in medical malpractice. An attorney has the skills necessary to review medical records, consult with medical experts and get the answers families deserve as to what went wrong with their loved one’s medical care. An attorney can hold the medical professional responsible for their negligence. Compensation may be available for medical expenses, pain and suffering and other damages.
Source: curetoday.com, “Failure to diagnose: Knowing the symptoms of inflammatory breast cancer”, Lauren M. Green, Feb. 24, 2016
