It is a marvelous thing that many cancers can now be treated effectively—but for almost all kinds of cancer, the likelihood of successful treatment increases dramatically if the cancer is diagnosed before it spreads. Missed cancer diagnoses can have devastating results.
Failure to diagnose cancer is a distressingly common occurrence—yet often a difficult medical mistake to prove in court. In part, this is because proving a misdiagnosis means proving that something did not happen—rather than did happen.
The challenging nature of these cases does not intimidate our experienced medico-legal team. Please call us today if you or someone you love developed cancer as the result of a faulty or late diagnoses.
Cancer Misdiagnosis Cases
Seven-figure settlement for failure to screen for fatal colon cancer.
The standard of care dictates annual screenings for colon cancer after age 50. When our client’s husband turned 50, he saw his primary care physician and a specialist approximately every six months for more than three years, yet was never screened for colon cancer. When he was 53, he complained to his doctor of rectal bleeding and was later diagnosed with inoperable colon cancer that had metastasized to his liver and lungs. He died at age 54, after chemotherapy and experimental treatments failed. Had the cancer been caught earlier through appropriate annual screenings, in all likelihood, he would still be alive today.
Breast cancer tumor discovered in annual mammogram goes undiagnosed.
In her annual mammogram, our client was diagnosed with breast cancer that had aggressively metastasized, requiring difficult surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation. Her radiologist later admitted that the tumor had in fact been present a year earlier, but had not been properly diagnosed. The intervening year had reduced the patient’s five-year life expectancy by 65% and caused her significant pain and anxiety.
Cancer misdiagnosis results in $3 million recovery.
A delay in the timely diagnosis of lung cancer allowed the disease to spread throughout the patient’s body. By the time the cancer was properly diagnosed, treatment was ineffective and the patient died.
Misdiagnosed cancer leads to $5.3 million recovery.
Our plaintiff underwent a biopsy of a mole on his back. The biopsy was read as normal when in fact the mole showed signs of the early stages of cancer. The cancer was not diagnosed until years later, after it had spread throughout his body, and the delayed diagnosis cost the plaintiff the chance of treating the cancer early and curing the disease.
