One of the unfortunate facts of life is that people in Pennsylvania will get injured or become ill at some point in time in their life. Sometimes the injuries or illnesses are minor in nature and do not need any medical treatment. However, there are many other injuries and illnesses that do require people to see doctors to treat the illness or injury.
Most people do not really like going to the doctor, but when they are forced to go they expect that the doctor will do their job correctly and the injury or illness will get better after treatment. Most of the time this is what actually occurs, but doctors are humans and make mistakes from time to time just like anyone else.
One type of mistake that doctors make is that they misdiagnose a disease or injury or fail to diagnose it all together. Also, they may fail to treat the problem correctly. When this occurs the issue may become even worse than it was before they saw the doctor. Generally doctors list a number of different possible diagnoses based on the symptoms and then rank them based on probability. They then treat accordingly.
However, sometimes they think certain symptoms are minor or temporary initially, but those symptoms end up being the main problem. The doctor would have treated them differently if they thought they were more serious. If the doctor’s mistake made the issue worse the patient may be entitled to compensation through a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Unfortunately sometimes doctors in Pennsylvania make mistakes when they diagnose patients or fail to treat them correctly. This can lead to a worsening of the condition. These patients may be entitled to compensation for their injuries. However, doctors have defenses and these lawsuits can be very complicated a difficult. Experienced attorneys understand what doctors are required to do and may be able to guide one through the process.
Source: injury.findlaw.com, “Failed/Erroneous Diagnosis and Treatment” accessed on September 5, 2017
