Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Cleveland Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney: Why a Second, Third, Even Fourth Opinion May Help To Save Your Life

What is the cost of assuming your doctor knows best? Everything, literally, can be on the line when a doctor makes his or her diagnosis. And yes, as our cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland will tell you, getting a second opinion, even if the diagnosis is positive, can save your life.

Consider this: 40,000 to 80,000 deaths occur in the U.S. from diagnostic error, and as many as 17 percent of diagnoses are inaccurate, according to a 2015 diagnostic report from The National Academy of Medicine (formerly the Institute of Medicine).

Not detecting cancer early enough kills. It’s as simple as that.

“Making the final diagnosis is the doctor’s responsibility,” Dr. Vinita Parkash, a professor of pathology at the Yale School of Medicine, assesses. “The doctor pulls together all the pieces of information, including history, signs, symptoms and test results, to name the disease that is the cause of the patient’s malady. It is that label, that diagnosis, which will accompany the patient through her health care journey and determine what will happen to her.”

Escalating Medical Complexity, Increases Risk

What is worrisome is the fact that misdiagnosis is likely on the rise in an age of increasing complexity and evolving medical approaches.

“Doctors face increasingly higher caseloads and administrative burdens,” Dr. Parkash points out. “Keeping pace with changes in medical knowledge is ever more challenging; it is estimated that medical knowledge will double every 73 days in 2020.”

So by all means, get a second opinion, or three or four, even if the results come back benign. That’s advice from our Cleveland cancer misdiagnosis attorney that may very well save your life. Trust us. Your family will thank you.