QUESTION
Do I have a good case to sue my doctor?
Asked on Feb 13th, 2014 on Medical Malpractice - North Carolina
More details to this question:
I noticed that my eyes were yellow on a Monday night. Tuesday morning I was having an EGD, so I thought I'd wait to ask the doctor about it. He glanced at my eyes, but didn't seem concerned. I pressed the issue. He said he'd look at my chart to see if there was anything there. After the procedure, he was supposed to come and speak with me. According to the nurse, he forgot, and went to do his next and last appointment of the day. I asked her to remind him about the yellow eyes. He came in after he was finished, said everything was fine. I asked about the yellow eyes. He asked if I had an appointment with my PCP, and I said no. He said that when I saw them again, I should mention it. I ended up in the hospital on Thursday night with jaundice. My bilirubin was over 7 (normal is 0.2-1.00) AST was 518 (normal 13-39) and ALT was 1092 (normal 7-52) A simple blood test could have prevented it.
1 ANSWER
To obtain a recovery in a medical malpractice action you have to prove that the physician was negligent and that the negligence caused damages. Sometimes even when you are able to prove negligence, the case may not be worth pursuing because of the lack of significant damages. Here, it seems like the physician should have suspected possible jaundice from your symptoms and either evaluated the condition himself or referred you somewhere for evaluation. However, the more important question is whether you suffered damages because of the delay in diagnosis from Tuesday to Thursday. It seems likely you would have been found to have jaundice if evaluated on Tuesday.
Answered on Feb 17th, 2014 at 3:41 PM