QUESTION
Is it malpractice when a doctor looks at the cat scan and says everything is normal and a month later another doctor looks at the same ct, abnormal?
Asked on Apr 17th, 2012 on Medical Malpractice - Georgia
More details to this question:
My 4 year old fell while swinging on furniture and hit his eyes. We took him to the emergency room and they sent him home after only looking at him for 15 minutes. Came in with complaint of eye hurting and nose bleeding when fell. Came back with complaints again the same day and then they say they found a scratch. I asked will they do an MRI and they said they don''t normally do MRI. Took him to the eye doctor and they said they see the scratch. Scheduled him 2 weeks later for another eye doctor who told me to get a cat scan. Took him to get the ct and when the eye doctor looked at the ct she said everything was normal. A month later he went to see another doctor and he looked at the same ct and he and an radiologists says there is a fracture in his eye. This should have been caught over a month ago. Now they want my 4 year old to get a second ct. Is this malpractice?
1 ANSWER
It would depend on what damages your son has suffered as a result of the one month period in time. You need to ask the new doctors (who found the eye fracture) if it had been found a month earlier, would anything be different? There have to be damages related to the failure to diagnosis the month prior and these cases usually require an expert witness who will testify to such. So, start asking the doctors and seeing if any damages or issues could have been prevented or would have been less severe if the fracture was discovered a month earlier. If you want to pursue this further, I recommend gathering all the medical records relating to this incident (ER and all doctors, health care providers) and start contacting local attorneys in your area who handle malpractice cases. Most will provide you with a free consultation and will probably want to review the medical records. Also, be advised that you may be limited to a 2 year statute of limitations (meaning that you may only have 2 years from the date of injury or failure to diagnosis to file a lawsuit). These cases are complicated and most state laws make it difficult to sue health care providers. Thus, I do recommend getting the assistance of a local attorney if you decide to pursue this further. A local attorney will be better able to advise you of the statute of limitations and other state specific laws relating to this potential case. I hope this information helps. Best of luck!
NOTE: This response is general in nature and should not be considered legal advice. No attorney-client relationship exists or is formed by this information.
Answered on Apr 19th, 2012 at 3:04 PM