Chicago Failure to Diagnose Lawyer

Getting Ready For Trial The Day You Walk Into The Office

When you are feeling seriously ill, you likely do not know exactly what the cause is. You trust your doctor to listen to you describe your symptoms, perform the correct tests, and make a diagnosis. He or she is supposed to be the one with the medical education, background, skill, and care to identify your condition accurately, so you can get needed treatment as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, that trust is not always deserved. Doctors in the Chicago area sometimes misdiagnose or fail to diagnose a disease due to negligence. They fail to give the patient the level of care and attention he or she is legally entitled to, and the patient suffers unnecessary health complications as a result.

Medical Malpractice

Confronting doctors who have committed this form of medical malpractice, along with their attorneys and malpractice insurance provider, can be intimidating. Since 1990, Munday & Nathan has stood with victims of misdiagnosis. Our attorneys have decades of experience successfully representing clients in the most challenging cases of misdiagnosis and failure to diagnose. Our mission is two-fold: to secure fair compensation for our clients, and to make life a little safer for everyone.

Our office is in Chicago, and we serve clients throughout the region, including in Cook, Will, Lake, and Waukegan counties. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you.

When Is a Diagnostic Error Considered Medical Malpractice?

Over our nearly 50 years of representing patients and their families in medical malpractice cases, the first step in almost every case we take is answering this question: what would a reasonable physician do, or should have done, given the facts before the physician for evaluation? The answer to that question is the threshold determining point of whether we will accept representation of the injured client and/or the family.

Prudent and analytical physicians thoroughly evaluate the patient’s chief complaint, laboratory results, and radiological findings to establish a comprehensive differential diagnosis for the patient. An accurate diagnosis can only be made based on a thorough analysis of all the data.

If a physician fails to consider all potential differential diagnoses, a costly error may occur, which can lead to disastrous consequences for the patient. In these circumstances, where a physician doesn’t consider all of the facts and reaches an incorrect diagnosis, the patient may be the victim of that doctor’s malpractice.

Common Examples of Diagnostic Errors

Every time we at Munday & Nathan think we have seen it all over the decades, we encounter an example of diagnostic error that we have not seen before. These examples are illustrative:

Closed head injuries are common in car accidents and falls. The force of a car crash can cause the brain to crash into the front and back of the skull thereby causing bruising and bleeding in and to the brain. This is called a “coup-countercoup” injury. It can be diagnosed and treated if diagnosed by CT scans and neurological examinations in the emergency room and on admission. A problem can arise when doctors rely on a seemingly normal-looking CT scan that taken near the time of admission to the E.R. Unfortunately, these premature diagnoses can be misleading because it often takes time for the blood to be seen on the scan. In this circumstance, blood can appear and cause terrible results if missed.
Cardiac conditions can be missed by an internist who fails to detect a cardiac abnormality that often requires a trip to an ER and admission or an immediate appointment to a cardiologist.
With most cancers, early diagnosis and treatment are critical. A “wait and see” approach can be fatal, and so can a physician who fails to review the results of a key test promptly. In one horribly tragic case we handled, a woman pregnant with her first child had a mole removed at her dermatologist’s office. He said the nurse would call with the results, but after three months, no one had called. The patient assumed any bad news would have been timely communicated for treatment. It wasn’t until after she called the dermatologist to have him send the biopsy results to her new physician that she learned the truth: the mole contained an aggressive melanoma. The patient died shortly after giving birth.

Unfortunately, stories like these are not unique, even at the “best” hospitals. These cases may have been preventable, but often are tragedies by the time we get involved.

You should be comfortable and understand what you are being told by your doctor. Be your own advocate at your appointment. If a biopsy is taken, or a test has been performed, be aggressive in following up and seeing the result. While nothing excuses a doctor’s failure to act reasonably in ordering tests and passing along information, advocating for yourself can reduce the risk of an avoidable tragedy.

Making the Right Diagnosis

The first step in medical care is making the right diagnosis. The physician must take a detailed history from the patient, and those accompanying the patient, if any. They must do a physical exam of the potential problems based on the history they have obtained and create a list of what the potential diagnoses may be.

The next step is to make a list of the potential conditions that may exist. These are called the “differential diagnoses”: what disease or condition might be afflicting the patient. The next steps are to order and perform specific tests to rule out as many potential diagnoses as possible and determine the most likely condition is causing the problems that brought the patient to the doctor. There is an art to medicine at this stage: creating the list of most likely conditions from which the patient is likely suffering can determine whether the patient will be cured or die.

The list of potential diagnoses is articulated and prioritized from the most likely conditions to the least. The physician’s responses will define the next steps: what further, confirming tests are necessary? What area(s) of medicine does the likely diagnose(s) require specialized caregivers: cardiology, neurology, oncology, gastroenterology, and so on. A prudent physician is constantly considering the strength and most probable diagnosis.

An error in this process that leads to misdiagnosis can be fatal or destroy a critical function. For example, brain injury or form of cancer that goes undiagnosed can progress to an untreatable stage, or contribute to new problems and damages to the patient.

Potential Damages for Victims

The damages awardable to the injured person and, in certain circumstances, the family can be profound. Depending on what happened to you as the patient, you could be entitled to significant compensation for:

Past and expected future medical care related to negligent care
Lost past and expected future wages due to inability to work
Pain and suffering
Mental anguish
Reduced quality of life

Your spouse and children could also be eligible for damages based on how the harm you suffered has affected their lives.

What You Should Expect to Discuss at Your Initial Consultation

At your initial consultation, you should feel comfortable asking any questions you have. We understand how complicated medical malpractice law can be, and there are no “bad” questions you can ask. We take pride in being there for our clients, and giving them access to our entire team, from their lead attorney to the rest of the attorneys and staff.

Evaluation of your case is another key part of the initial conversation. Regardless of which lawyer you chose, this MUST be discussed and evaluated at your first meeting or conversation with an attorney, so you fully understand your prospects for recovery. We will discuss what happened to you in great detail and explain honestly whether you can expect restitution.

You should also make sure you understand the scope and details of the attorney-client agreement the attorney offers you, so it is clear to you how they get paid and when. Most medical malpractice firms in the Chicago area, including Munday & Nathan, work on a contingency basis, which means they do not get paid unless they recover compensation for the client. However, you should confirm these details before deciding to proceed with a particular lawyer.

Contact Munday & Nathan at our Chicago office today to discuss your case and paths to recovery available to you.

Practice Areas