Clients who contact us regarding a cancer misdiagnosis case often wonder how this could have happened to them. The truth of the matter is that there are many ways in which doctors can misdiagnose cancer cases. Add to this, in some instances, if the cancer would have been properly diagnosed, the patient would have had a great chance of beating the cancer.
The first way in which cancer can be misdiagnosed is when radiologists misread X-rays and CT scans. This can have a devastating consequence on the patient’s treatment because the treating doctor is usually relaying on the information from the radiologist.
The second way in which cancer can be misdiagnosed is due to “handoff” errors. A handoff error can be for example, a doctor providing the wrong information to a radiologist regarding a patient or a radiologist providing the wrong scan results to the treating doctor. These types of errors can also be disastrous to a patient because they can prevent the patient from getting the treatment he or she needs.
Finally, when doctors do not listen to their patient’s complaints this can cause cancer to be misdiagnosed. Add to this, when a patient has a family history of cancer, and the doctor still does not request tests when appropriate, this can too cause cancer cases to be misdiagnosed.
If you think that your doctor was not listening to your complaints, and you now have cancer, or you think that there was some type of error reading your tests, we invite you to give us a call. We answer questions like yours all the time and we would be glad to hear your story. You can reach us at 301-850-4832.
