Misdiagnosis Claims

Claim for Misdiagnosis

If you or a loved one have had your condition misdiagnosed and your treatment has therefore been delayed, you received the wrong treatment, you have suffered or your condition has worsened as a result, you may be entitled to make a claim for medical misdiagnosis compensation.

Misdiagnosis by a doctor, GP, midwife or nurse can occur in a variety of situations and any condition or ailment can be misdiagnosed and potentially entitle a patient to claim compensation for medical misdiagnosis.

Common medical misdiagnosis claims being dealt with by Blackwater Law medical negligence solicitors, for clients across the country, include:

• Cancer misdiagnosis claims

• Misdiagnosed heart attack

• Misdiagnosed stroke

• Misdiagnosed internal bleeding

• Misdiagnosed meningitis

When can you claim compensation for misdiagnosis?

Misdiagnosis can arise due to a number of circumstances and where any of the following have occurred, you may be entitled to claim misdiagnosis compensation:

• You present to your GP with symptoms but you are told that these symptoms are nothing to worry about, or your symptoms are associated with a minor condition and the wrong prescription is issued.
• You present to your local doctor with symptoms but your doctor is unsure what you are suffering from, yet you are not referred to a specialist who would be better placed to diagnose you. Such a claim may be linked to a GP negligence claim.
• During pregnancy, your, or your partner’s, midwife fails to identify that you are showing signs of a condition or that there is a risk to the baby. You may therefore be entitled to make a birth injury claim. Included within claims for birth injuries to the mother would be pre-eclampsia claims.
• Misdiagnosis can also occur as part of surgical error. If investigative surgery is undertaken to provide for a more accurate diagnosis but your condition is still not diagnosed or misdiagnosed.
• Misdiagnosis can also occur where, despite being referred to a specialist for testing, your test is perhaps carried out incorrectly, leading to false results and misdiagnosis. In other cases, patients’ test results have been incorrectly analysed and the wrong conclusions derived, leading to a misdiagnosis of their condition.
• Misdiagnosis can also occur as a result of you being referred to the wrong medical specialist.

The above are all examples of circumstances that, if experienced, may provide grounds for a misdiagnosis claim to be made. However, the above is not an exhaustive list. If you believe your condition or that of a loved one has been misdiagnosed, contact Blackwater Law to find out if you may be entitled to medical misdiagnosis compensation.

Medical misdiagnosis solicitors

Blackwater Law has a team of medical negligence solicitors specialising in misdiagnosis claims. The reputation and specialist expertise of our clinical negligence solicitors means they advise and represent clients across the country in cases involving claiming compensation for misdiagnosis.

Confirming their positions as expert misdiagnosis solicitors, a directory of the country’s top law firms – The Legal 500 directory – ranks the team at Blackwater Law among the leading law firms in this area of law. You can therefore be confident that when you call us for compensation claim advice that you will receive some of the best legal advice available.

Blackwater Law ensure your misdiagnosis claim will be the strongest possible, backed by expert medical evidence and specialist legal argument.

No win, no fee misdiagnosis claims

Blackwater Law operates all clinical misdiagnosis claims on a no-win, no-fee basis. This provides you and your family with peace of mind that you can seek compensation without any financial risk to you. If your claim for misdiagnosis compensation is not successful you will not owe any legal fees or any other costs. You pay nothing.

You can learn more about how no-win, no-fee works in our guide.

How do you prove misdiagnosis?

To prove misdiagnosis, your solicitor will identify and instruct appropriate medical experts to produce reports that provide supporting evidence that your condition was misdiagnosed and that this could and should have been diagnosed correctly. These expert medical reports will also make arguments relating to the difference in outcome if your diagnosis had been correct in the first instance and there had not been unnecessary delays or mistakes in diagnosis or treatment.

Blackwater Law medical negligence lawyers specialise in misdiagnosis compensation claims. Your solicitor will be a specialist in dealing with claims for misdiagnosis like yours and will give you expert legal advice on whether you may be able to make a claim, which medical professional(s) are responsible for your misdiagnosis and how this affected your condition, treatment and prognosis.

In more complex cases involving multiple encounters with a GP, doctors, specialists, consultants and nurses, this is not always clear. After investigations and supporting medical evidence has been established and gathered, your solicitor will begin discussing with you how much misdiagnosis compensation you may be entitled to.

How much compensation for misdiagnosis?

The amount of compensation you could receive in a claim for misdiagnosis will vary on a case-by-case basis.

The amount that you could receive will depend largely on the impact that the misdiagnosis has had on your day-to-day life, and what lasting effects you are left with.

For example, a person who is no longer able to work as a result of the effects of misdiagnosis will likely receive more compensation than a person who is able to continue working just as they did before.

Learn more about how compensation is calculated in our article.

Impact of medical misdiagnosis

The consequences of receiving a misdiagnosis can be significant and in the worst cases life-threatening. It is widely agreed that for many conditions and ailments, misdiagnosis leading to delays in diagnosis (and therefore delays in treatment) are linked to reduced effectiveness of treatment and potentially worse prognoses.

Taking a well-researched condition such as cancer as an example, it is understood that in the case of bowel cancer misdiagnosis, prompt diagnosis and treatment provide for a survival rate of approximately 90% 5 years after diagnosis. This compares to a figure as low as 6% in cases where the cancer has gone undiagnosed or misdiagnosed, or a delayed diagnosis has caused delays in treatment.