Denver Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorneys
A Top Legal Team to Help When a Missed Diagnosis Changes Your Life
Early detection is vitally important to the successful treatment of cancer.
That’s why a misdiagnosis - or a delayed diagnosis - is so deadly. In the United States, an estimated 12 million adults who seek medical care are misdiagnosed every year. In half those cases, the misdiagnosis has the potential to do real harm - especially when cancer is involved.
At Leventhal Puga Braley P.C., we know how difficult a cancer misdiagnosis is to handle. The victim and his or her family must deal with physical pain, emotional trauma, and astronomical medical expenses to correct a mistake that should not have been made in the first place. We can help. Our medical malpractice attorneys have won record-breaking verdicts for clients, and we have a wealth of knowledge when it comes to the law and medicine. For a confidential consultation at no charge, please call us at (303) 759-9945 or toll-free at (877) 433-3906.
What Is a Misdiagnosis?
When you go to see your doctor, you expect them to give you a proper diagnosis and then help you get better. Sadly, this doesn’t always happen. Sometimes, doctors fail to run proper tests, dismiss you outright, or believe that their gut instinct is more trustworthy than proven medical science. When that happens, you may suffer a misdiagnosis, of which there are many types.
A misdiagnosis is when your doctor concludes that something is wrong with you - but that is not what is actually wrong with you. For example, a doctor incorrectly diagnoses a patient’s chest pain as indigestion, but it was a heart attack.
A failure to diagnose (also called a missed diagnosis) is when your doctor completely misses or dismisses your symptoms and tells you that you’re fine, but you’re not.
And a delayed diagnosis is when a detectible illness is only caught after significant time has passed, although it could have been diagnosed from the very beginning with proper care. A study in the Journal of the American Medical Association placed the incidence rate of failed, delayed, and misdiagnoses between 10% and 20% in the United States.
A false diagnosis is when your doctor falsely diagnoses you with a form of cancer you don’t have. This could mean you still have cancer, but the diagnosis was for the wrong kind, or it could mean that you don’t have cancer at all.
How Do Doctors Misdiagnose Cancer?
While a good doctor should always be sure to ask pertinent questions, listen to their patients, and run the proper tests, not all do so. This heightens the chance of a misdiagnosis. Doctors usually miss cancer by:
- Not ordering further diagnostic tests
- Delaying follow-up after an abnormal result
- Not referring the patient to a specialist
- Making a mistake in reading the patient’s test
- Making a technical error in conducting the test
- Assuming another possible diagnosis without confirming
When a healthcare provider fails to do his or her job to reasonable, professional standards, and a person is harmed as a result, that person has a valid claim of medical malpractice against the healthcare provider. Doctors, clinicians, radiologists, and pathologists all work together to diagnose illnesses, and any one of them or several could be held responsible when a cancer diagnosis is missed or delayed.
What Are Cancers That Are Commonly Misdiagnosed?
Cancer-related diseases account for the largest group of misdiagnoses in the United States: over 20% of the total. In truth, many additional cancer misdiagnoses are unnoticed and unrecorded, because few hospitals require autopsies when patients pass away. This means that the chances you receive a cancer misdiagnosis could be even higher than you realize.
From our experience, these are the most common cancers that go undiagnosed:
- Breast Cancer
- Colorectal Cancer
- Lung Cancer
- Prostate Cancer
- Cervical Cancer
- Ovarian Cancer
- Lymphoma (Lymphatic Cancer)
At Leventhal Puga Braley P.C. we have handled hundreds of misdiagnosis and cancer cases. We work as a team, providing unparalleled service to our clients. Our top-rated trial attorneys have strong backgrounds in medicine, to the extent that they lecture fellow lawyers in different aspects of medical malpractice cases.
If you suspect an error led to your cancer going undiagnosed, please contact us as soon as possible. Each state has time limits for filing a medical malpractice claim called statutes of limitations. The sooner we can look at your medical records and start our investigation, the more evidence we should be able to collect to help your legal case. If your loved one passed away from cancer that was missed or delayed, you may have grounds for a wrongful death claim, and we can also help with that.
The Dangers of a Cancer Misdiagnosis
Cancer, what ever the form, is debilitating. Even if the form of cancer you have is slow growing and often non-fatal, delaying treatment can lead to serious health problems. Without proper treatment, your cancer will be allowed to develop further and further until getting rid of it will take lengthy bouts of chemo, extensive surgeries, and potentially even the amputation of certain body parts. The key to treating cancer successfully is to treat it quickly. The earlier the stage the cancer is in, the greater your chances of surviving are. But when you are misdiagnosed, whether it be from your doctor completely dismissing your concerns, or diagnosing you with a different disease or disorder, your chances of walking away from your cancer as healthy as possible drops.
On the other hand, if you are given a false diagnosis, as in you are diagnosed with cancer when you don’t actually have the disease, then you may find yourself living through a medical hell for absolutely no reason. Cancer treatments are hard on the body. Chemotherapy, while it helps kill the cancer, it also has detrimental effects on the rest of your body as well. Your hair can fall out, you can lose drastic amounts of weight, you can begin to feel nauseous at all times, and your skin can even become more fragile and easier to cut or tear. No one should have to go through such treatment unless it actually has the chance of helping. If you have been falsely diagnosed and given debilitating cancer treatments you don’t need, then you need the help of an experienced medical malpractice attorney in order to get the compensation you deserve.
Colorado Malpractice Lawyers with the Experience You Need
At Leventhal Puga Braley P.C. we’re not just attorneys. We, too, are American citizens who are fed up with this broken healthcare system. That’s why we dedicate so much of our practice to fighting against the wrongs done to vulnerable patients. We make no apologies for holding medical providers to a high standard, because they deal with life and death. To us, patients come first.
With our unique blend of compassion, expertise, and innovation, Leventhal Puga Braley P.C. has settled many claims successfully for past clients. If you believe that a medical provider missed an important cancer diagnosis, please call our office at (303) 759-9945 or toll-free at (877) 433-3906. There is no charge for your initial consultation. If we can help you, we front all costs necessary to take your claim to trial, if needed. You will only owe us if we are successful in getting you a settlement or verdict on your behalf.
Additional Information
- Misdiagnosis: Commonplace In The United States
- Your Cancer Diagnosis - Do You Need a Second Opinion?
- Cancer Diagnosis? Advice for Dealing with What Comes Next
- How Cancer Is Diagnosed - National Cancer Institute
Great Trial Lawyers Obtaining Unparalleled Results
303-759-9945 
877-433-3906