You go to the doctor when you get sick because you need their expertise and skill to help you get better. But it does not always happen. After weeks or months of pain and debilitation, you find out that the reason you are not feeling any better is that your doctor misdiagnosed your condition.
Reasons to wonder if your doctor committed malpractice
Medicine is very complex, and scrupulous, dedicated physicians don’t always get it right the first time. However, many missed diagnoses that happen in the Milwaukee area are the result of negligence by the doctor. Here are five signs you might have been the victim of negligent failure to diagnose your illness:
- The doctor rushed through the exam, or failed to gather enough information about your medical and family histories
- The doctor failed to order necessary tests that could have helped them accurately diagnose you
- The medication your doctor prescribed is not working
- Your condition has similar symptoms to several other diseases
- You got a second opinion from another physician who gave you a much different diagnosis that turned out to be accurate
These experiences do not guarantee that your doctor committed medical malpractice, but they do suggest that they might not have given your case their full attention. Doctors can be very busy, and sometimes they rush through an exam. However, you should expect your doctor to give you the level of due care to which you are legally entitled. Because if your doctor does not provide it, they are much more likely to commit medical malpractice against you.
Why it matters if your illness is misdiagnosed
As a patient, being misdiagnosed is more than an annoyance or a waste of time. For serious illnesses like cancer or heart disease, the delay in getting an accurate diagnosis and useful treatment can be fatal. Even if you do survive, you likely suffered unnecessary pain, weakness and other symptoms that could have been avoided had your doctor diagnosed you correctly the first time.
