Cancer Misdiagnosis? You Need to Know Your Rights

Cancer misdiagnosis cases are complex and require extensive legal scrutiny, time, and legal expertise.

As if the news isn’t hard enough for victims, they must also scramble to figure out what to do next.

This guide compiles much of the complicated information that’s already out there into basic, easy-to-read steps for you to follow.

Introduction to cancer misdiagnosis cases

For the most part, if a doctor or specialist has failed to accurately diagnosis your cancer, or has failed to follow up with exams or recommendations given your symptoms at the time, then you can pursue a medical malpractice lawsuit.

As a victim of a cancer misdiagnosis, here are some of the basic rights you have:

• Filing a claim
• Free legal help
• Medical assistance
• Financial cost compensation

Let’s begin.

What is medical negligence?

To know if you qualify for a medical malpractice case, you first need to know what constitutes medical malpractice.

Here’s a breakdown of cancer misdiagnosis qualifiers if your doctor:

• wasn’t able to accurately detect the cancer
• detected nonexistent cancer leading to needless treatments
• failed to detect medical conditions that resulted in cancer
• misinterpreted test results, relevant documents or medical reports
• failed to properly discuss symptoms and your medical history with you
• wasn’t up-to-date on the latest oncological treatment/medicines
• was fatigued or distracted during the diagnosis
• failed to follow up and research any possible causes of the symptoms you had reported

Who can you sue?

• Your primary physician who didn’t accurately diagnose the cancer or failed to properly follow up with suggestions or exams
• A radiologist who misinterpreted x-ray results
• A surgeon who didn’t accurately detect malignant tissues
• In rare cases, nurses, lab techs, and specialists who tended to your needs t
• Diagnostic tools that were malfunctioning, in which case the lab owner is accountable

Note: Hospitals or health care facilities cannot be sued because most doctors are considered to be independent contractors, and are thereby not employed by the hospital or the facility.

What to do after a cancer misdiagnosis

After a cancer misdiagnosis, you’ll first want to contact a qualified team of malpractice attorneys.

You’ll be providing them with medical reports, your treatment history, diagnostic dates, sworn statements and so on to help build a winning case.

Attorney Fees

Needless to say, when you’re undergoing treatment and money isn’t coming in, the last thing on your mind is hiring a malpractice attorney.

Although attorneys are expensive, the truth is that anyone can afford an attorney.

That’s because for malpractice cases, attorneys will handle your case based on a contingent fee arrangement, which means that your attorney will only get paid if they win your case.

Contingent fees

To reiterate, a contingent fee means that your attorney only gets paid if they win your case.

Essentially, your attorney will be working for you for free until they can win your case.

At that point, they’ll take a percentage from the winnings.

It’s a fair system because you’ll never have to pay a cent in the early phases of the case.

If it just so happens that they don’t win your case, then that means that they won’t get paid. And you won’t have to pay for any of their services while they were building your case.

Am I eligible for medical malpractice compensation?

Financial costs can quickly rise, putting a huge burden on victims and their families.

Getting compensated for financial losses can be very challenging and draining.

Without the appropriate burden of proof, you will have a hard time making a verifiable claim that you are the victim of cancer misdiagnosis.

Luckily, our experienced attorneys can get you the results you need.

Our law firm has a proven track record of achieving substantial verdicts, as high as $47 million, with other multi-million-dollar medical malpractice cases that other firms determined were too difficult to prosecute in New York, including:

• $9.3 million verdict on behalf of a young boy who suffered deafness and brain damage because of medical negligence.
• $4 million settlement in Buffalo New York on behalf of a 44-year-old man who suffered from Cauda Equina Syndrome due to a post-op abscess.

Getting reimbursed for financial costs

Cancer treatment can be very expensive and nearly impossible to pay for. However, if you were wrongly diagnosed with cancer, you are entitled to reimbursement for your expenses and other losses the moment you were diagnosed, leading up to your settlement.

As part of your malpractice claim, you may want to file against your doctor and other accountable specialists for a cancer misdiagnosis and request a repayment for lost wages, pain and suffering, medical debt, and other costs connected to the cancer misdiagnosis.

Get your loved ones involved

Your loved ones can also file a wrongful death suit against responsible parties.

“Statute of Limitations” in a Cancer Misdiagnosis Case

In any malpractice case, you should know that there are time limits to presenting your case in court and starting off your lawsuit in the right direction.

The clock starts the moment misdiagnosis or incident took place.

Each state varies in how long a patient has before they can no longer legally file a cancer misdiagnosis case.

In New York City, for example, the statutes of limitations range anywhere from 1 to 6 years, depending on the case.

The bottom line

A cancer misdiagnosis lawsuit is very complicated and requires intense legal scrutiny, time, and cooperation from many parties.

If you believe that you are a victim, remember the following:

Collect as many of your medical records as you can, then contact an experienced team of malpractice attorneys with whom you can discuss your rights, the legal process, and other options you are legally entitled to.