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Sep 30, 2015|Medical Malpractice

Doctor Error on Body Scan Produced a False Positive for Cancer

Lady doctor checking the xray
Medical Malpractice Attorneys in Brooklyn

The most resourceful medical malpractice attorneys Brooklyn residents can rely on may help you or your loved ones recover compensation if medical negligence or misdiagnosis has occurred. Do not allow yourself to suffer physically and financially because of your doctor’s negligence. If you have suffered from cancer misdiagnosis or any other type of medical malpractice, contact our team of experienced medical malpractice attorneys Brooklyn residence can rely on at Peters Berger Koshel & Goldberg, P.C. Click to schedule your free legal consultation with our firm today. We can help you determine if malpractice has occurred and if so, how you can proceed with your medical malpractice claim.

Doctor Errors and False Positives

An unidentified California mother of four was falsely diagnosed with cancer after doctors ordered a full-body scan on the suspicion that her cervical cancer had spread. Previously, the 32-year-old woman had been correctly diagnosed with cervical cancer. Following the body scan, doctors removed her fallopian tubes, uterus, and pelvic lymph nodes after seeing those areas lit up during a PET scan. Upon closer examination, it turned out the woman was actually not suffering from spreading cancer. Instead, the lit areas of her PET scan were caused by ink that had leaked into her lymphatic system from her 14 tattoos.

An incorrect diagnosis can dramatically alter a patient’s life, especially if it is a cancer misdiagnosis or an incorrect diagnosis of another disease that requires intense treatment. Incorrect diagnoses are a type of medical malpractice, which are accidents that occur due to a doctor or other hospital staff member’s error.

How Can Cancer Be Misdiagnosed?

There are a lot of ways a patient’s cancer might be missed or mishandled by doctors. In the example above, a woman’s tattoo ink was mistaken for cancer cells. Other ways a patient can suffer from a cancer misdiagnosis include:

  • Diagnosing cancer at a late stage, despite having the resources and ability to have caught it sooner;
  • Advising the patient to seek a new or untested form of treatment;
  • Inaccurately diagnosing the type of cancer from which the patient is suffering;
  • Prescribing the patient an inappropriate type or dosage of medication.

The medical community is still learning about how cancer develops, spreads, and can be treated. It is not one disease, but a category of related diseases, some of which have been studied extensively and others we are only beginning to understand. Although there is a lot of information available to doctors, there is also a lot of misinformation and ignorance even among professionals.

Seeking Compensation for a Medical Malpractice Claim

Patients who suffer because of their doctors’ errors can seek monetary compensation through medical malpractice claims. Through this type of claim, a patient can recover his or her economic losses due to lost career opportunities, lost time at work, medical bills, and the cost of treatment to address issues created by the misdiagnosis. If a patient dies because of a misdiagnosis or other error, his or her family may file a wrongful death claim.

Call our firm today at 1-800-836-7801 or 718-596-7800. We are conveniently located at 26 Court Street Suite 2803 in Brooklyn.

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