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Medical Negligence Attorneys
in Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, Nassau County, and Suffolk County
Misdiagnosis: How you can recover from Medical Negligence
Misdiagnosis is a frighteningly common form of medical negligence, which happens most often in the emergency room, but can also result from a regular office visit. The results of misdiagnosis are typically delayed treatment, no treatment, or treatment for the wrong condition, all of which can have devastating health effects.
Delayed or lack of treatment
Delayed treatment results in your condition being able to progress, causing more damage or even death. This typically results in harsher, more dangerous, longer lasting, more painful, and more expensive treatments, with a significantly reduced chance of survival or recovery. It can result in permanent injury or immediate death.
The outcome for misdiagnosis survivors usually falls into one of three categories:
- Total lack of treatment and lack of knowledge of an event, such as a heart attack, leading to a second more harmful occurrence.
- Immediate, permanent damage due to misdiagnosis of something, such as a stroke, which must be properly treated within minutes to minimize the effects. This can mean permanent brain injury and permanent disability.
- A condition, such as cancer, which has advanced requiring more aggressive treatment with a reduced chance of survival or recovery.
Treatment for a non-existent condition
Treatment for a condition which you do not have can mean undergoing unnecessary, painful and life threatening treatments, possibly resulting in permanent disability, damage to your health, and even death. In the meantime, if there really is something else wrong with you, it is going untreated and worsening.
Patients in perfect health have undergone years of painful, expensive, life-threatening, and life-altering treatment due to a false positive reading on routine tests. Patients who do not display symptoms should always be re-tested before undergoing treatment for a serious illness. Always get a second opinion.
Recovery
There are three important aspects of recovering from misdiagnosis: physical, emotional, and financial. Sadly, many patients will not be able to recover physically or emotionally. However, with the proper medical care, and the support of their loved ones, some patients can make a full come-back in their health.
Depending on the type of misdiagnosis and the type of damage it has caused, the means to medical recovery will vary.
If the damage is done, such as brain injury from an undiagnosed stroke, recovery will involve therapy and rehabilitation to regain as much function as possible. Often victims of misdiagnosed stroke will require life-time care.
In the case of a still progressing condition, the condition itself must be treated, albeit much more aggressively, with the skeptical patient placing his or her life in the hands of a medical system that is now under suspicion.
The treatments required to recover from misdiagnosis are typically far more expensive than treatment would have been with a proper original diagnosis, and of course, they are in addition to any expense which has already been incurred while treating the wrong condition. Getting the compensation which you need and deserve may be the only way that you can afford the treatment you now require. Compensation which you may be entitled to, if you or a loved one has been harmed or killed by misdiagnosis includes:
- Past medical bills for procedures you did not need
- Future medical bills to treat the now worsened condition
- Physical therapy and rehabilitation
- Counseling or psychiatric treatment
- Past and future lost wages
- In-home care
- Long-term care
- Pain and suffering
- Loss of enjoyment of life
- Loss of companionship
- Burial expenses
If you or a loved one has been injured or killed by misdiagnosis in New York City or Long Island, please contact the medical negligence attorneys at the Law Office of Silberstein, Awad & Miklos. Proudly serving those in the Nassau County, Suffolk County, Brooklyn, & Bronx, New York area.
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