Sacramento Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawyer

As a rule, doctors prefer to make more common, less deadly diagnoses for their patients rather than considering rarer problems such as cancer. Often enough, they are correct to be cautious. However, when the doctor is wrong, and the patient does have cancer, this mistake could be fatal.

As you and your family work to rebuild after a failure to diagnose or a misdiagnosis, do not forget that you may have a claim against your doctor, clinic, or hospital. Our Sacramento cancer misdiagnosis lawyer could review your case, explain your options, and make sure your providers address your claims.

What Are the Risk Factors for a Cancer Misdiagnosis?

Many types of cancer appear with ordinary symptoms. This makes them especially dangerous for patients whose healthcare providers do not think carefully or pay close attention.

The cancers doctors most frequently miss include:

• Colon cancer (misdiagnosed as irritable bowel syndrome)
• Lung cancer (not always considered in nonsmokers; mistaken for ordinary respiratory illnesses)
• Breast cancer (through misreading the imaging results or diagnosing benign cysts)

Doctors or other healthcare providers can make these mistakes due to miscommunication, exhaustion, personal bias, or simple carelessness. A hospital or institution’s poor management or corporate decision can also create the conditions that allow a cancer misdiagnosis. A Sacramento malpractice attorney could help you seek compensation for the impact a cancer misdiagnosis has had on your life.

When a Cancer Misdiagnosis Costs Everything

Patients who do not get the right diagnosis in time will suffer more pain, fatigue, and psychological distress as they seek answers. Some of them may only get those answers in time to know why they are dying. It is not only a failure to diagnose cancer that is dangerous. A false diagnosis of cancer can exhaust a patient and make them even sicker.

After a cancer misdiagnosis, patients and families often lose money due to extensive medical testing and treatments before receiving the correct diagnosis. A patient may also undergo intensive therapies that a timely diagnosis could have avoided, such as chemotherapy. Additionally, they may experience lost income, wages, and opportunities while managing prolonged illnesses and treatments.

If the patient cannot survive, their family must deal with the costs of an untimely death: funerary costs, losses of expected support, and the terrible weight of anger and grief at their passing. An attorney could help Sacramento families pursue compensation for these losses in a cancer misdiagnosis case.

How a Misdiagnosis Attorney Can Help Patients and Families

State law does not always make it easy to understand whether a patient could have a malpractice claim after a cancer misdiagnosis. Our medical malpractice attorneys review cases every day to determine whether patients and families have claims, and we know what the law requires plaintiffs to prove.

A doctor, healthcare worker, or medical institution has a legal duty to the patients they treat. They must use the same level of skill and care that a reasonably careful person in their profession could be expected to use under those circumstances, as per California Civil Jury Instructions No. 501.

When a professional harms a patient through a failure to uphold their duty, they could be responsible for the patient’s injuries or death. To prove that this happened, an attorney needs evidence, which includes all the exam notes, test results, and records relevant to a patient’s treatment. Our Sacramento malpractice attorneys know how to investigate these records and work with medical experts to create a powerful cancer misdiagnosis case for an injured client.

Call a Sacramento Attorney About a Cancer Misdiagnosis Case

Ikuta Hemesath Leonard, LLP is a dedicated medical malpractice firm. We know how deeply patients have to trust their healthcare providers and how much they lose when providers break that trust.

We want to hear what you and your family have gone through. Call today to make your first appointment with a Sacramento cancer misdiagnosis lawyer and learn how we could work together.