Can I sue the hospital for not giving me a thorough exam which resulted in a misdiagnosis?

You may have a valid medical malpractice case if the failure to diagnose the cancer a year ago will have a negative effect on your current treatment plan. You should sit down with an attorney for a free initial consultation to discuss your case in greater detail.

You what you wrote, it appears you may have a medical malpractice case due to the serious misdiagnosis.

Immediately order complete copies of all of your records, from the hospital and from your family doctor. Since I do not know if you are a man or a woman, I have to talk in general terms. When a guy gets into his 40's-50's, during the regular annual physical exam, the doctor will frequently check the guy's prostate. To do that, you drop your drawers and bend over the examining table, and the doctor puts a glove on and inserts a finger into your anus. The doctor probes around, feeling the prostate gland through the lining of the colon. Then, when the doctor withdraws the finger, the fecal material is wiped onto a specially treated card. If there is any blood in the fecal material (a frequent sign of cancer in the colon), it will show up on the card. If your doctor did not do that test, that COULD be malpractice. As to the ER visit, they are only required to deal with urgent and life-threatening problems. They are to stabilize the patient and then get the patient to the particular specialist necessary to treat the problem. Although it is possible that the ER personnel made a mistake, you need to have the records reviewed by an expert who can testify to the standards of practice of an emergency department. Additionally, whether or not there is a case will be determined by whether or not you survive the cancer treatment. Someone will need to find out from your treating doctor whether or not an earlier diagnosis would have changed the result. Good luck. You have a battle ahead of you, and I hope that you maintain the proper frame of mind to deal with it.

In order to prove a medical malpractice case, a claimant must prove a failure to conform to accepted practice, resulting in a worsening of your condition that otherwise could have been avoided. . A bad result is not enough, and if it is a "judgment call" by the doctor, there is no malpractice, even if the doctor made the wrong call. Failure to diagnose cancer is frequently a basis for a malpractice case. As you pointed out, there is the question of them having diagnosed you without performing tests to confirm the diagnosis, and then there is the matter of whether they should have given you a referral for further testing or treatment. Also, there may be an issue if you had a primary care physician in the meantime. You will need to get copies of all of your medical records and have another doctor review them; if he/she is willing to testify that the ER doctor(s) failed to conform to accepted practice, then you have a case.

Maybe. It takes the opinion of a medical expert to determine malpractice. Medical malpractice lawyers typically have such an expert available. Consider consulting one. Good luck.

You have a claim if you can prove it medically. Your words mean nothing but if the doctors say you have a claim in writing and are willing to testify you may make a go of it .thought about how you prove damage?

You can sue, but if the ER doctors did what ER doctors would normally do in that situation, it is unlikely that you will prevail. However, it is best if you contact a local medical malpractice attorney and go over the details with him or her.