Well, hi everyone…I haven’t been around in a while. Hope you’re all well…I need some advice and at this point don’t feel comfortable asking people involved in my every day life. I thought maybe some folks here would have some insight.
I very recently went through a really serious medical emergency. The problem is that my doctor missed it… Totally. She actually even thought that there was something GOOD going on with me… I slowly started to feel very uneasy, and my instincts were telling me something was really wrong. My husband was begging me to see another doctor. SO I called someone else for a second opinion… and the new doctor ended up diagnosing me with a pretty serious condition. For now it seems that I am out of immediate danger, though I am still being treated. ANd it’s unclear for now if there will be any lasting health effects that wouldn’t be here if it had been caught early. However, if it had gone on long enough it would have eventually been fatal, within a few weeks more than likely.
I don’t know what to do at this point. On one hand I think I should let it go as part of the “moving on” process. On one hand I want to call my first doctor and just give her a piece of my mind. Should I just make a complaint to the state medical board? Or should I seriously consider a civil suit? I don’t even know the law regarding medical malpractice. I’m not even sure I want to go through the process of a lawsuit. Does anyone have experience with this? A part of me feels like suing would be petty… but then I think of how serious it could have been. And if I am really just concerned that she not be able to do this to another person, shouldn’t I just file a complaint with the medical board and skip the lawsuit all together?
Anybody have thoughts on this? Under what circumstances can you sue? Does there have to be irreparable damage?
I guess the question you need to ask is what do you hope to accomplish?
If her error caused you a major financial loss that otherwise would not have occurred, then it makes sense to seek damages.
If you want to send her a message that her mistake almost cost you your life, you could just as easily send her a complaint letter. If she’s a halfway decent person, I’m sure she will feel horrible about what happened.
If you want to prevent this from happening to someone else, you could file a complaint with the state medical board, or try to get her fired (if she works for a hospital).
If you just want to punish her, you could do all of these things and sue her too.
I don’t do med-mal, but on the facts presented, it looks to me like you may have trouble proving damages. I think you’d have to prove that the failure to diagnose by the first doctor made the situation demonstrably worse before the second doctor began treatment.
Also, bear in mind that despite all the ridiculous rhetoric from the insurance industry, med-mal cases are very expensive to litigate, and relatively few lawyers will even take them. In my state, you have to have an expert willing to testify that malpractice has occurred before you can even file the lawsuit. Often, local doctors will not testify against other local doctors, so you end up having to bring in someone from elsewhere…and paying for their time/expertise/travel costs.
There are many other factors to consider. If you want to pursue this, your best bet is likely to consult a med mal attorney in your area.
I appreciate your ability to boil it down so simple, that was something I haven’t been able to do. Honestly, I have to think about it… I recognize that some of my anger is just coming from the fear of knowing I was in imminent danger.
As far as costs are concerned, there will be some bills, and there will be more in the future. I don’t think it will add up to be an enormous amount, but it will definitely have an impact on our budget. But, I’m not sure that the bills are any higher than they would be if she had caught it.
I kind of like the idea about writing her a letter directly… and while I would really hate for her to lose her job, my fear is that she is careless and that someone else may not be as lucky as I was… I’ve been reading a little bit about the process for making a complaint to the state board where we live.
Based on what you posted no one is going to be able to tell you whether you have or will have a malpractice case.
Generally speaking here are the requirements for malpractice:
1 - duty to treat. This one is easy. Obviously your primary doctor has a duty to treat you if you get sick.
2 - the provider failed to conform to the relevant standard of care. Here’s where it gets harder. Just because your doctor missed the diagnosis doesn’t necessarily mean she did something explicitly wrong or in violation of standard of care. You need to talk without someone who is familiar with your particular illness to find out what the standard of care is.
3 - the deviation from standard of care caused an injury. I don’t think you have this yet since “it’s unclear for now if there will be any lasting health effects that wouldn’t be here if it had been caught early”.
4 - damages. This can be either emotional or financial but there has to be something that you’re claiming recompense for.
I think for now I’m just going to pursue a complaint with the medical board. If she missed the diagnosis because of a simple error, then there’s no harm. But if she missed it because she was careless, or didn’t really know what she was doing, then hopefully an investigation would turn that up and the state board will take what they think are appropriate steps.
I was strongly of the opinion that most malpractice suits were crap, till the father of a good friend of mine passed away after 2 years of increasing misery from an infection he had resulting from his replacement hip joint.
It is easy to be all rational and clinical about public policy, but then, ‘it’ happens to someone you know.
I know the medical problem was not deliberate, but how do I know if it was a result of an unknown unknown, or just carelessness? I’d think he had 5 to 8 ‘good’ years left, absent the infection, but the 2 years of torment before he died was rough on all the family. I don’t see money putting things to rights, but without some kind of sanction, how do we minimize these occurrences?
Another friend of mine is showing clear signs of toxic effects from medication he took years ago. In his case, the damages are ‘social’ in nature, so far. His appearance and countenance has changed as a result of this medication, and as a result, people he encounters are ‘off put’ by his changed looks. Also, the longer term side effects are unknown. He is manifesting ‘bizarre’ GI disturbances, and so far, there is no diagnosis as to what is going on with that. I witnessed and ‘attack’ that lasted 2 hours and left him tired. If it progresses to 3 hour attacks that leave him ‘exhausted’, we are edging into some pretty scary medically unknown terrain.
How the heck can this be quantified and adjudicated? His ‘condition’ might be a moving target, the ultimate resolution of his malady might be grim, or it might at some point stabilize.
As you admit, you have no idea why he had an infection nor that the doctors did anything wrong. Not every poor outcome, especially infections, can be traced to any action by a doctor. Infection is a well known risk of surgery, and while incidences can be minimized, they can never be completely eliminated.
This is exactly why people think medical malpractice suits are crap. Something bad happened, therefore, the doctor should pay, with no regard to what actually happened.
I’ve been an expert witness in a few dozen med mal cases (I’m a physician). Doesn’t make me an expert on the process, by any means.
I do think it’s common to make an assumption that if a physician makes a wrong diagnosis, a serious deviation from the standard of care should be assumed. Without detail, it’s impossible to say whether or not you were given competent care. It’s almost always easier for the next physician down line to make a diagnosis. Suppose someone comes in with early hyperthyroidism; you may not notice much. A month later the diagnosis is much easier to make.
There are attorneys specializing in this area who will look at your case to see if it has merit. “Merit” means they have a chance of recovering money. That’s the least expensive way to find out if your malpractice case has a chance.
Unless you have fairly obvious damages, it’s tough for them to get a settlement, the same way it would be tough for me to get money from a cell-phone-using driver who almost killed me but ended up swerving back into her lane on time.
The place to start if you want to make a medical complaint is either with your state medical board or, if your physician is employed, with her employer. An honest and direct letter to the physician, or a direct conversation, would be a nice thing to do. We learn from our mistakes.
IMO, you do so in the long run by fostering an environment that encourages doctors/nurses/etc. to work together to review past mistakes and come up with ways to prevent them (and then allows them the time/resources/professional discretion to do so), not by making them go on the defensive, clam up, and lawyer up. If you feel that a particular occurrence was below the standard of care, you make a board complaint which will be reviewed by other medical professionals, not a lawsuit which will probably be settled out of court by the hospital’s lawyers. Lawsuits are good at getting money but not so good at determining and fixing a root cause scientifically. JMVHO.
I’m sorry about your friend’s dad.
ETA: I see now that others have stated it much more thoroughly than I have. Oh well, have my .02 anyway, just don’t spend it all in one place.
This is what I was going to say to the OP - I don’t think that you can just assume that because the second doc caught it, the first doc missed it. The OP says herself that she kept feeling worse. Depending on the condition and the timing, it may be the sort of thing that by the time she got to the second doc, it was much clearer what the problem was. That doesn’t automatically mean the first doc was negligent.
Google “tort reform.” I am not your lawyer, and not giving you legal advice.
There are several states that a med-mal case would be rejected by any good attorney based on cost to prosecute.
If you have a question ask the doctor who “misdiagnosed” you for an explanation. Meet with him/her and get a verbal answer if you really want to know. You probably do not want to know and the answer is very likely within what a reasonable GP would do under same or similar circumstances. But feel free to consult a lawyer.
Board actions are almost worse than a lawsuit so feel free to complain. If your assertions are BS any future claims will be treated as such. So please, talk to a lawyer in your jurisdiction. Listen to his/her advice especially if they decline to rep you.
When they were going through his ‘stuff’ they found he had been awarded a bronze star during his tour of duty in Korea. He never mentioned that to anyone, so they are trying to get some army records to find out what he did. Hell of a nice guy . . .