When a failure to timely diagnose is hospital negligence

Despite our inclination to trust the medical professionals in whose hands we put our lives, they are capable of making mistakes. We expect to leave the hospital in better condition than when we came — or at least with a course of treatment that will cure an ailment or heal an injury. Sadly, far too many Louisiana residents suffer from hospital negligence in some form, and they might not even realize it at first.

The importance of diagnosing certain conditions as early as possible cannot be stressed enough. For instance, the rate of survival of certain cancers increases dramatically when they are discovered in their early stages. Any delay in their diagnosis could cost a Louisiana resident his or her life.

The first time you go to a doctor with a particular complaint, it might not seem that a mistake was made if the correct condition is not diagnosed. After all, your symptoms could be indicative of any number of ailments. This fact does not necessarily preclude the possibility that your doctor simply failed to take the time and/or steps to ensure that the diagnosis was correct. By the time the correct diagnosis was made, you might have suffered irreparable harm.

If you believe that you were the victim of doctor, nurse or hospital negligence, it simply makes good sense to contact an attorney. After a review of your circumstances, an investigation can be conducted to determine what went wrong and when. Finding evidence that the care you received was below the accepted medical standard and presenting it a civil court could result in an award of damages. Perhaps just as important is the possibility that policies and procedures could be modified and/or changed in order to prevent the same issue from recurring.