Torrance Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawyer

Every successful cancer treatment needs one thing that money cannot replace: time. Catching a malignancy at the earliest possible stage can make a profound difference in a patient’s treatment options and outlook. A cancer misdiagnosis may be one of the most serious mistakes a doctor can make.

If you or someone in your family suffered because a doctor failed to diagnose or misdiagnosed cancer, a medical malpractice attorney at Ikuta Hemesath Leonard, LLP could review what happened. Our Torrance cancer misdiagnosis lawyer could help you and your family understand your rights under state law.

Why Would a Doctor Miss a Cancer Diagnosis?

Doctors and other medical staff can make mistakes, sometimes accidentally and sometimes through carelessness or negligence. A practitioner can miss signs of cancer due to:

• Miscommunication among medical staff because of overcrowding, poor workflow, or other institutional problems
• Misinterpretation of symptoms as another condition, such as attributing intestinal problems to irritable bowel syndrome
• Misjudgment of clinical signs, such as misreading imaging or disregarding test results
• Dismissal of a patient’s complaints
• Technical failure or improper use of medical equipment that prevents accurate testing or interpretation

A misdiagnosis can result from poor management at a hospital, clinic, or other institution, as well as errors by individual providers. If an individual provider is responsible, a Torrance medical malpractice attorney could evaluate whether the institution also bears responsibility for the missed cancer diagnosis.

What Is at Stake for Malpractice Victims?

A doctor’s failure to diagnose cancer can leave a patient facing delayed treatment and a far poorer chance of treatment success. In the most serious cases, the patient may have no effective treatment options left and could die within days or weeks of learning the diagnosis.

A Torrance attorney handling a cancer misdiagnosis case could help the patient or their family seek compensation for losses resulting from the error. These losses can include medical treatment and related travel costs, loss of past and future income, childcare and housecleaning expenses, and the cost of other tasks the patient cannot perform. Compensation may also address pain, suffering, and emotional distress.

A family that has lost a loved one can make a claim to recover for the loss of love, companionship, comfort, care and assistance of their lost loved one. The claim can also be made for economic damages caused by their loved one’s death including funeral and burial costs, as well as compensation for the loss of that person’s financial contributions to the family.

How Medical Malpractice Attorneys Assemble a Case

In a cancer misdiagnosis case, a Torrance attorney’s first and most important task is to secure evidence. Attorneys typically review relevant documents and records, including:

• Records from all medical providers at each visit, including nurses and technicians
• All test results
• Any records of communications with the patient

A client can work with an attorney to secure this evidence early, before it disappears. If the institution loses or destroys it, the court could impose penalties.

Medical malpractice attorneys work with medical experts to determine how the misdiagnosis happened and hold the responsible parties accountable.

Call a Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney in Torrance

If a healthcare provider’s failure has cost you years of your life or taken a loved one from your family, you deserve to be heard. At Ikuta Hemesath Leonard, LLP, our lawyers have decades of combined experience handling medical malpractice cases.

A Torrance cancer misdiagnosis lawyer at our firm could listen to your story and work to get you and your family the help you need. Contact us as soon as possible. The statute of limitations for medical malpractice claims is short, and missing the deadline can cut off your rights.