Medical Malpractice Lawyers

From the Desk of a Cleveland Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney: Cancer Misdiagnosis More Common than Most Realize

As any Cleveland cancer misdiagnosis attorney will tell you, misdiagnosis is much more common than the general public believes. Misdiagnosis happens as much as 10 to 20 percent of the time, according to a recent article in the Washington Post. Trusting a doctor’s advice when it comes to cancer discovery faces about the same odds as Russian roulette, and the results can be just as fatal.

In fact, a 2009 report funded by the Federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that 28 percent of 583 diagnostic mistakes were life threatening or resulted in death or permanent disability. A recent study on errors at a Texas VA hospital found that 87 percent of the time the misdiagnosis had the potential to cause serious harm as well as death.

“This is an enormous problem, the hidden part of the iceberg of medical errors that dwarfs other kinds of mistakes”, David Newman-Toker, an associate professor of neurology and otolaryngology at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, told the Washington Post. Most cases of misdiagnosis come from flawed thinking and negligence, and not the rarity of the disease itself.

“There is probably nothing more cognitively complicated than a diagnosis, and the fact that we get it right as often as we do is amazing,” Dr. Mark L. Graber, a leading researcher and founding president of the Society to Improve Diagnosis in Medicine, told the Washington Post.
The moral of the story is to get a second opinion, even if the results turn up benign. It not only will save you from consulting a Cleveland cancer misdiagnosis attorney, but might actually save your life.