When you or a family member falls ill, receiving a misdiagnosis can be devastating. Not only can this misinformation lead you to pursue an unhelpful course of treatment, but it can also cause you to lose critical time to address your medical condition.
If you experience a cancer misdiagnosis, you have the right to pursue legal action against the responsible medical professionals. If you’re wondering what kind of compensation you could receive from a misdiagnosis case, the experienced lawyers at Janet, Janet & Suggs can assist. Discover the factors that typically affect the average settlement for cancer misdiagnosis cases.
How Much Compensation Could I Receive for a Cancer Misdiagnosis?
The outcomes of medical misdiagnosis cases vary significantly, depending on the circumstances. In many cases, you could receive compensation for the financial losses you experience as the result of a cancer misdiagnosis. These expenses have easily measurable costs:
- Medical bills, including existing and future expenses related to treating your condition
- Lost salary, including paid and unpaid time off as well as decreased earning potential
- Prescription drugs and medical devices related to your treatment
- Emergency transportation for medical care
If you’re the victim of a cancer misdiagnosis, you may face many other challenges above and beyond medical expenses and lost income. That’s why many medical misdiagnosis cases include additional compensation for expenses that are not clearly tied to a monetary value. These non-economic damages can include:
- Pain, suffering, and distress, including emotional trauma
- Physical deformities and scars
- Reduced quality of life
If a medical misdiagnosis contributed to a loved one’s passing, you may be able to pursue a wrongful death case. Compensation for these cases typically takes several factors into account:
- The deceased person’s age and health status
- Their income and earning potential
- Their dependents’ ages
- Their medical bills and funeral expenses
- Any loss of consortium with the deceased person
What Are the Limits for a Misdiagnosis Settlement?
From financial losses to non-economic damages, compensation for a cancer misdiagnosis case can be substantial. However, it’s important to note that some aspects limit the compensation you could receive from a medical misdiagnosis settlement. For example, California’s Medical Injury Compensation Reform Act (MICRA) places a cap of $250,000 on non-economic damages for residents of the state. More than two dozen other states also have limits on non-economic damages for medical misdiagnosis cases.
How Do I Know If I’ve Had a Medical Misdiagnosis?
Receiving a severely delayed or incorrect cancer diagnosis can cause significant pain, suffering, and trauma. However, not every medical mistake is classified as malpractice. To establish whether you’re the victim of misdiagnosis, our team considers the following issues:
- You had an established doctor-patient relationship. Your healthcare professional can be held liable for a misdiagnosis if they had a duty of care to you as your doctor. A bill from your doctor or insurance company generally suffices as proof of a relationship between you and your doctor.
- Your doctor neglected to follow through with their duty of care. To be liable for a delayed diagnosis or a misdiagnosis, your doctor must have failed to act as a reasonable medical professional would have acted in the same scenario. For example, a negligent doctor may have:
- Ordered the wrong diagnostic test or neglected to order one altogether.
- Read the diagnostic test or other relevant information incorrectly.
- Misplaced your patient file or confused it with another patient’s information.
- Failed to respond to your complaints or neglected to notice a relevant issue during a physical examination.
- You experienced injuries or illnesses due to your doctor’s actions. If your doctor’s delayed diagnosis or medical misdiagnosis caused harm or injury that you wouldn’t have experienced otherwise, your physician may be held liable.
- You incurred losses or damages from your injuries. If the injuries you suffered led to financial losses and non-economic damages, you may be able to receive compensation. In general, if you incurred more losses, you could be eligible for more compensation.
How Can Janet, Janet & Suggs Assist With My Misdiagnosis Case?
The accomplished legal team at Janet, Janet & Suggs has years of experience with delayed diagnosis and medical misdiagnosis cases. Our misdiagnosis experience covers breast, prostate, lung, and several other types of cancer. Together, our team has reached tens of millions of dollars in settlements and verdicts in cancer misdiagnosis cases.
It doesn’t matter if your doctor has a private practice or belongs to a large healthcare system. Our team of attorneys has proven experience with pursuing cases against some of the largest organizations in the country—and receiving positive outcomes. With our in-house team of medical professionals and a 40+ year track record, our national law firm has what it takes to put you in the best possible position to obtain the compensation you deserve.
Whether you’re the survivor of lung, prostate, breast or another form of cancer misdiagnosis, you can feel confident about putting your case in our capable hands. We offer every client the compassion we would want for our own families.At Janet, Janet & Suggs, our medical misdiagnosis lawyers are committed to helping you receive the compensation you deserve due to a delayed diagnosis or a misdiagnosis. Contact our office today for a free, no-obligation consultation, and learn more about how to take the first step toward pursuing legal action.