Oklahoma patients could receive improper diagnoses for a variety of reasons. In some cases, a lack of time spent with a patient or doctor bias could cause a physician to come to a conclusion that may not be correct. Patients themselves may not tell their doctors everything they need to know to make a proper diagnosis. It may also be possible that human error in a lab could result in a false result. A lab test may also fail because of the limitations inherent in that test.
While misdiagnoses occur infrequently, they are more prone to happen to people with rare diseases that necessitate the care of a specialist. It is also important to note that a doctor is not going to be familiar with or even aware of every possible condition that a person could have. There are over 20,000 human diseases, and most doctors only know the most common ones.
Patients are encouraged to tell their doctors about every symptom they’ve been experiencing to make it easier to diagnose what ails them. Even if a patient thinks something is embarrassing or trivial, it could be the key to his or her doctor making the correct diagnosis. Patients should also complete any tests that were ordered by their doctors to increase their chances of getting their conditions accurately identified.
Someone who has been a victim of a failure to diagnose may be entitled to compensation, especially if the misdiagnosis was caused by a doctor’s negligence. The money he or she could receive may cover lost wages, medical bills and missed future earnings in addition to other damages allowed by law. An attorney may help an injured patient negotiate a settlement outside of court or obtain a jury award after going through a formal trial.