MEDICAL MALPRACTICE AND DELAYED DIAGNOSIS OF CANCER
keywords, delayed diagnosis, negligent, medical malpractice, delayed diagnosis of cancer, missed diagnosis of cancer, claim, medical malpractice claim, cancer medical malpractice claim, delayed diagnosis of cancer claim.
Cases of missed or delayed diagnosis involve three elements.
Negligence
A doctor does not insure the safety of his patients and every missed diagnosis does not constitute negligence. Instead, his duty is to conform to the applicable standard of care. What that standard is will usually be the subject of expert evaluation by a professional in the same area.
Proximate Cause
Did the error substantially alter the course of the disease or the patient's prognosis. A 4-6 month diagnosis will not alter the prognosis for many cancers. We can identify the following factors in assessing the impact of a missed diagnosis.
A. Delay How much time transpired between the time the cancer should have been diagnosed and the date it was.
B. Initial Treatability Can the plaintiff show the disease was initially treatable.
C. Stage. Has the stage of the disease changes and is that attributable to delayed diagnosis.
Some states require the plaintiff to show it was more likely than not that the missed diagnosis impacted the patient's condition. In others damages are based upon the value of a lost chance, even if that chance was less than 50%.
Damages Every life is valuable and every loss a tragedy. Nonetheless many lawyers will evaluate claims based upon various criteria of damages. These would include, the nature of lost wages and other financial losses.
Literature on Delayed Diagnosis of Cancer Claims
Christensen, The impact of delayed diagnosis of
lung cancer on the stage at the time of operatio, European Journal of
Cardio-Thoracic Surgery
Volume 12, Issue 6, December 1997, Pages 880-884
Objective: The purpose of this investigation was to study the correlation
between diagnostic delay
and the stage of the lung cancer at the time of operation. A second objective
was to study differences
in symptoms between the patients grouped according to stage.
Billing, Delays in the diagnosis and surgical treatment of lung cancer. British
Medical Journal, 1996
The survival of patients with lung cancer is well known to be correlated with
the stage.' There is concern that delay in diagnosis
and treatment allows tumour progression and thus reduces survival. The patient
may also require more extensive resection.
Turkington, Misinterpretation of the chest x ray as a factor in the delayed
diagnosis of lung cancer, Postgraduate Medical Journal, 2002
All patients in 1997 with a histologically proved diagnosis of lung cancer in
Castle Hill Hospital
in whom a full set of case notes and x rays could be retrieved were studied. All
previous chest
x rays were reviewed by a consultant chest physician and a radiologist.
IJensen, Impact of delay on diagnosis and treatment of primary lung cancer, Acta
Oncologica, 2002
Corner, Experience of health changes and reasons for delay in seeking care: a UK
study of the months prior to the diagnosis of lung cancer,
Social Science & Medicine, 2006
The problem of 'delay' in diagnosing cancer as a result of late presentation by
individuals who
have symptoms, or through doctor or hospital system failures, are currently the
subject of close
attention as part of broader initiatives to reduce deaths from cancer.
Forrest, Radiologic errors in patients with lung cancer Western Journal of
Medicine, 1981
Viewed in the 23 patients in group 2 (failure of detection), multiple errors
were discovered in most
cases (Table 3). The diagnosis of lung cancer was often delayed months to years
after the first
definite radiologic evidence of a mass had gone unrecognized
Quekel, Miss Rate of Lung Cancer on the Chest Radiograph in Clinical Practice,
Am J Roentgenol 1986; 147:1291–1298.
Kenneth, Medicolegal analysis of the delayed diagnosis of cancer: 338 cases in
the United States. Arch Churg 1994;129,397-404.
Potchen, When is it malpractice to miss lung cancer on chest radiographs?
Salomaa, Delays in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Cancer, Chest, 2005
Besides these, several other national recommendations on delay times in the
diagnosis and
treatment of lung cancer exist. .
Christensen, The impact of delayed diagnosis of lung cancer on the stage at the
time of operation.
The purpose of this investigation was to study the correlation between
diagnostic delay and the stage
of the lung cancer at the time of operation. A second objective was to study
differences in symptoms
between the patients grouped according to stage.
European Journal of Cardio-Thoracic Surgery, Volume 12, Issue 6, December 1997,
Jensen, Impact of delay on diagnosis and treatment of primary lung cancer.
Salomma, Delays in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Lung Cancer, Chest,
October 2005 vol. 128 no. 4 2282-2288
Bjerager, Delay in diagnosis of lung cancer in general practice, - The British
Journal of Medicine, 2006
Lung cancer is a common cancer disease; nevertheless, in Denmark a GP only sees
one new
case of lung cancer per year. The core symptoms of lung cancer, cough and
dyspnoea, are on
the other hand very common in general practice.
MEDICAL
MALPRACTICE CLAIMS (Free Consultation provided on legal claims)
Over 70% of lung tumors
are diagnosed at advanced stages, reducing the patient's opportunity for long
term survival.
In some instances, a doctor's failure to promptly diagnose a lung tumor, and order
or interpret appropriate tests may be malpractice. Our office handles
failure to diagnose lung cancer cases in New Jersey and New York.
evaluating
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by Howard Gutman, New Jersey law Journal)
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York Cancer Malpractice claims
medical malpractice and clinical practice guidelines
New Jersey cancer malpractice
claims
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liability
Medical malpractice jury instruction
New York Medical malpractice law
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malpractice pre-existing cause
workers' compensation doctor liability for malpractice
cancer, malpractice and informed consent
article
on missed and delayed diagnosis and malpractice claims
laboratory
error and malpractice veteran's
hospital medical malpractice claims
X-rays and missed diagnosis
keywords, delayed diagnosis, negligent, medical malpractice, delayed diagnosis of cancer, missed diagnosis of cancer, claim, medical malpractice claim, cancer medical malpractice claim, delayed diagnosis of cancer claim.
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