Sadly, we see them all the time: a case where a Virginia doctor failed to diagnose a medical condition.
- The emergency room doctor thought meningitis was the flu, and sent a patient home.
- The radiologist believed a tumor was a cyst and nothing was done.
- The family doctor thought it was migraines, and instead the patient had a brain tumor.
No one is perfect and Virginia doctors make mistakes. No one suggests doctors intentionally harm their patients when they fail to diagnose an illness.
But sometimes, a doctor misses what is really happening to a patient, and like everyone else they should take responsibility for the consequences of their mistakes.
A failure to diangnose a medical condition could be:
- Negligence.
- Malpractice.
- A mistake for which they should be held accountable.
Or not.
So how do you, the patient, know whether a Virginia doctor was negligent?
You must request your medical records and have them reviewed by a local attorney specializing in medical malpractice cases. They will help your family investigate to see what really happened, and whether the failure to diagnose was unacceptable.