Millions of patients face a misdiagnosis every year

You trusted your doctor to deliver you from illness, but your life took a drastic turn when they came up short. Facing life after a misdiagnosis can be terrifying, but you may get some financial help in the wake of those grievous errors.

Millions of adults face a misdiagnosis every year, and half of those missteps could lead to unnecessary harm. If you think your suffering might stem from a doctor’s error, then you could be in line for compensation.

Ailing advice

The path to compensation in linear, so you’ll have to check the boxes along the way:

• Relationship: First, you’ll need to show that you and your doctor had a patient-physician relationship. Advice in passing won’t cut it. You’ll need to show that you were both aware of the link, and they agreed to see you in an official capacity.
• Negligence: While medicine is a science, outcomes aren’t always a sure thing. But your doctor does need to act with a level of competence that you could reasonably expect from any professional. You may have a claim on your hands if your doctor misreads your labs, doesn’t order the proper tests or won’t spend enough time going over your case.
• Injury: The next step is showing that the negligence exhibited by your doctor led to your injury. This can sometimes be difficult to prove since you were getting treatment for an ailment in the first place. You’ll need to show that the injury was something you would not have suffered if most any physician would have diagnosed you correctly.
• Damages: The final step of combining all the factors is showing the damages that stem from the process. You’ll need to show ailments that you must now deal with because of the ordeal like developing a disability or ongoing pain, additional medical bills or extra time away from work that wouldn’t have occurred otherwise.

Understanding what contributes to a successful medical malpractice claim is often the first step toward compensation. Make sure you get the help you need when a doctor creates hardships instead of heals them.