What Happens When a Doctor Fails to Diagnose?
The failure to diagnose birth injury means that the provider didn’t detect the illness or find the condition on time. One problem stemming from not finding the birth injury comes from how they can diagnose and treat it. You have another danger where they might find it, but they misdiagnose the injury. In the cases of failure to diagnose a birth injury, the medical community classifies this as medical malpractice when the birth injury leads to harm to your baby or you.
What Counts as Medical Malpractice?
Not all situations will count as medical malpractice, and you have some cases where a failed diagnosis won’t count for this. For example, you have to have established a patient-to-doctor relationship with them. Let’s say that you have a doctor who gave you poor medical advice. However, they don’t serve as your primary doctor. As a result, you can’t hold them liable for injuries to you or your child. Also, the doctor has to have failed to give a proper diagnosis, which directly led to an injury to either you or your child. Let’s say that you have gestational diabetes. You couldn’t file a lawsuit if you slipped and fell, which caused the injuries. It must have a direct relationship with the failure to diagnose the injury.
Why Do Doctors Misdiagnose Patients?
You have a couple of different reasons that doctors have misdiagnosed patients. First, they didn’t provide you with adequate monitoring, and they didn’t search out the possible infections. Besides, they may not have done a proper physical exam, and they may not have reviewed the patient’s medical history correctly. In some cases, they failed to detect fetal distress. The other thing is that the doctor may have failed to order the right screenings and tests for the mother that led to an injury, such as cerebral palsy for the child. If such a thing occurred, you need to seek financial help.
A delayed diagnosis of birth defects can have serious consequences because you don’t take the proper measures to balance them. In some cases, a birth disorder may not have serious consequences, but it should still be diagnosed because it can help you reduce the impact it will have on you. After a doctor has failed to give a diagnosis, the outcome will depend on the severity of the health ramifications to the mother and the infant.