Diagnosis cases
A diagnosis that arrived too late
Chest pain sent home as indigestion. A lump read as nothing. A scan that was ordered, then never looked at. Many conditions hide, and not every late diagnosis is malpractice.
What we look for is the point where a careful doctor would have acted, and the harm that followed because no one did.
We ask for the full chart, the images and the lab results
A physician reads them before we accept a case
If we decline, you hear why in writing
What the chart has to show
Four things have to be on the page before a case is worth bringing.
A symptom on record
A visit, a call or a note where the problem was first described.
A step that was skipped
A test not ordered, a result not read, or a referral that never happened.
A later finding
The diagnosis that finally came, and when.
Harm from the wait
Something worse, or harder to treat, because of the delay.
Questions we hear about diagnosis
Is a wrong first diagnosis always malpractice?
No. Doctors often start with the likeliest cause and revise it as more comes in. The question is whether a careful doctor, with the same information, would have looked further sooner.
I only learned about the delay from a later doctor. Is that enough?
It is a start. What a later doctor says goes into the chart, and a physician reviewing the records can tell us whether it points to a missed step.
How soon do I need to call?
Soon. Deadlines for these claims are short and strict, and they can begin before you realize anything went wrong. Call before you worry about having everything in order.
Will you need to speak to my doctors?
We work from the records first. Most of the time we never need to contact your treating doctors, and we do not do so without asking you.
Not sure whether a delay was a mistake?
Send us what you know. A physician will read the records before we give you an answer.
There is no fee for the review, and no fee at all unless we recover money for you. Case costs such as record fees, expert review and filing fees are set out in a written fee agreement we go through with you before you sign.