Medical Malpractice Lawyers

Cleveland Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawyer: Nearly Half of All Vascular Events, Infections, or Cancer Misdiagnoses Result in Permanent Disability or Death

These are shocking figures to most, but unsurprising to any cancer misdiagnosis lawyer in Cleveland. Nearly 10% of patients in the United States with symptoms caused by major vascular events, infections, or cancers actually are misdiagnosed, according to a recent Johns Hopkins School of Medicine–led study published in the journal Diagnosis.

What’s more, nearly one-half, or 53.9%, of those misdiagnosed suffer a permanent disability or die because of the error. Plus, nearly 3/4 of all serious misdiagnosis-related harms in malpractice claims stem from those three areas – major vascular events, infections, or cancer.

The data is clear: Cancer misdiagnosis is surprisingly common and can be very deadly or debilitating.

Details of the Study

Researchers aggregated rates for the 15 diseases from 28 published studies involving 91,755 patients. Among other types of misdiagnosis, the study looked at five key cancers, including lung cancer, breast cancer, colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and melanoma.

The study noted:

“Diagnostic improvement initiatives should focus on dangerous conditions with higher diagnostic error and misdiagnosis-related harm rates.

“Finally, it is worth pointing out that diseases historically receiving the most sustained attention to diagnosis (i.e. research funding, clinical quality improvement, public awareness) are the ones with the lowest harm rates. Myocardial infarction is the prototype and the only acute illness approaching the target “standard” of <1% harmed often cited in the emergency department. This is, of course, after a half century of focused efforts to automate electrocardiogram interpretation, develop and refine biomarkers (e.g. troponin) and create routine diagnostic protocols for chest pain or suspected acute coronary syndromes. Similarly, basic research studies and clinical trials focused on prostate cancer biomarkers (e.g. prostate-specific antigen) date back to the 1960s. Achieving similar gains may be possible for other key diseases, but only if we make sustained investments in improving diagnosis (e.g., missed stroke in acute dizziness, where novel bedside tests and tele-medicine have shown early promise).”

Cancer misdiagnosis is a serious and often overlooked issue. If you know of someone who has had a cancer misdiagnosis, contact one of our cancer misdiagnosis lawyers in Cleveland for a free consultation.

Cleveland Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney: Woman Learns Her “Cancer” Actually a Rare Parasite

Good news can be relative, as any cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland will tell you. One woman learned her cancer was misdiagnosed. But the actual cause of her pain turned out to be a rare parasite, alveolar echinococcosi (AE), that had been growing in her body for the past decade.

“I wasn’t sure what to think,” Cassidy Armstrong recalled learning the life-altering news. “I asked them, ‘Is this good?’ and they said, ‘It’s much better than what we thought you had.’”

What doctors thought she had was fibrolamellar carcinoma (FLC), a rare form of liver cancer that typically affects people under 40. Roughly 44 to 68 percent of people with FLC live as many as five years after diagnosis.

“I was getting ready for the worst,” Armstrong said in an interview with TODAY. “I was getting ready to die.”

The Good News? An Incurable Disease She Can Live With

AE is not a fatal disease, but there’s no cure for it either. Armstrong now takes medication on a daily basis and will receive blood tests once a month and a CT scan every six months to make sure the parasite is under control.

“I have mixed feelings about it,” Armstrong admitted. “I’m happy – I like being alive. Psychologically, it’s been really tough. I’m grateful and I’m happy that it’s not what they thought it was. But it’s been very hard.”

As any cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland will comment, the corrected diagnosis is still a very serious condition; however, it’s treatable and certainly better than the misdiagnosed cancer.

Cleveland Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney: Mother Undergoes Mastectomy as a Result of Error

One cancer misdiagnosis recently left a mother of two severely traumatized. At 28 years old, Sarah Boyle underwent a double mastectomy and chemotherapy before the Royal Stoke University Hospital realized it had made an unfortunate mistake.

These kinds of stories are all too familiar for a cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland. Those who made the error must be held accountable for their actions.

In this case, the results of a biopsy sample were incorrectly recorded.

Increased Risk, Ongoing Trauma

Sadly, Boyle now faces an increased risk of cancer because of the breast implants. She has also been told the treatment may affect her fertility.

Boyle related the tragedy of her experience and the difficulties she continues to face as a result:

“The past few years have been incredibly difficult for me and my family,” she said.

“Being told I had cancer was awful, but then to go through all of the treatment and surgery to then be told it was unnecessary was traumatizing.

“And while I was delighted when I gave birth to Louis, it was really heartbreaking when I couldn’t breastfeed him.

“As if that wasn’t bad enough, I am now worried about the possibility of actually developing cancer in the future because of the type of implants I have and I am also worried about complications that I may face because of my chemotherapy.”

If you have been the victim of a misdiagnosis, call our office immediately for a free consultation from one of our Cleveland cancer misdiagnosis attorneys.

Cleveland Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney: The Shocking Global Ignorance of Cancer

Take it from a cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland: Most women do not know enough about ovarian cancer. Perhaps it’s time to learn.

In all 44 countries surveyed, women diagnosed with ovarian cancer didn’t know significant details about their condition, which is common among patients.

The Cost of Ignorance

Ovarian cancer could be more treatable, and even potentially curable if caught in early stages.

“No one country does it well,” Frances Reid, a study designer with the World Ovarian Cancer Coalition,  told NPR. “Different countries do different things well, but then they do other things not so well.”

The knowledge just isn’t there.

“What they report is consistent with what we know about ovarian cancer,” says American Cancer Society epidemiologist Lindsey Torre, who recently wrote an overview of ovarian cancer in the US. “There’s not enough information out there.”

And that’s tragic. Lack of knowledge often leads to more deaths, more incidents of misdiagnosis. As any cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland will tell you — knowledge is power. Upon diagnosis, do your due diligence to investigate and learn as much as possible about your condition.

A Cancer Misdiagnosis Tragedy

It’s a tragic case that is all too familiar to a cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland. A 32-year old mother was told the lump in her breast was just a blocked milk duct, only two months after giving birth. Doctors told her the lump would “go away when I had the baby,” Anna Alessandro, of Stockton-on-Tees, England, told TeessideLive.

Incurable Bone Cancer

A few months later the lump was still there. When she went back to the specialist, doctors discovered that the cancerous lump had spread to the lymph nodes under her arm, two vertebrae, and her sternum. A few months later, the cancer spread to her bones. Alessandro has been told it’s incurable.

She urges all women to do self-checks to protect themselves.

“The girls will know what happened to me but what can explain cancer to a 4-year-old?” Alessandro told Metro News. “I have said to Ashley I am probably not going to be here at the age when the girls will have to check their breasts but make sure they check them. I never checked my breasts, it isn’t something that is brought up for younger women. I want women to check their breasts more and if there is a problem go to their [doctor] and don’t take no for an answer.”

If you believe your cancer has been misdiagnosed and wish to consider your legal options – we encourage you to contact a Linton Law Firm cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland today for a free consultation.

Cleveland Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney: One Woman’s Story and the Trauma of Medical Errors

Ask many of the clients of our cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland – the trauma of a cancer misdiagnosis can often seem as if “you’ve been thrown to the wolves,” even if the wolves turn out to be a medical mistake. Having limited time left to your life and saying goodbye to loved ones, is the definition of trauma, even if it turns out you are actually perfectly healthy.

Such was the experience of Jan Scott, who had been misdiagnosed with terminal lung cancer. In June, she was told the cancer was far too advanced for chemotherapy or radiotherapy and that she had five months to live. She flew her three grandchildren to Dunedin from Australia for a final visit to say goodbye and began planning her funeral.

Yet she felt no physical pain. With the help of a hospice doctor, she sought further tests and had a PET scan, which ended up revealing no cancer.

The hospital even sent Scott a letter to minimize the impact of the mistake by saying she lived with the misdiagnosis for only a few weeks, when in fact it was months, she said.

An Unapologetic Medical System

At the very least, she’d like an apology.

”I would like an apology more than anything,” Scott told the Otago Daily Times. ”I just want a bit of closure on the whole unfortunate case. All he actually said to me was: ‘We do make mistakes’.”

Scott was fortunate to be on the healthy side of a cancer misdiagnosis. Many others are not so lucky, and the error can prove fatal. If you have been the victim of a cancer misdiagnosis, contact our Cleveland cancer misdiagnosis attorney for a free consultation.

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.

Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney Cleveland: Michigan Woman Has Unnecessary Double Mastectomy

A Michigan woman had a double mastectomy and a hysterectomy she didn’t need, because of a cancer misdiagnosis.

As our cancer misdiagnosis attorney in Cleveland will point out, incorrect diagnoses where there isn’t really cancer can be a serious health issue, altering lives irrevocably on the basis of faulty data.

Colleen Hanna had breast pain in October of 2012. An ultrasound and mammogram came back normal, but a blood test indicated she was BRCA positive.

As ABC12.com reports:

“The BRCA gene test is a blood test that uses DNA analysis to identify harmful mutations in either one of the two breast and ovarian cancer susceptibility genes, known as BRCA1 and BRCA2. A woman who tests positive is more susceptible to developing breast and ovarian cancer. Doctors recommended Hanna have a double mastectomy, the removal of both breasts, to reduce the risk that she would develop breast cancer.”

Upon doctor recommendation, Hanna had a hysterectomy in May 2014.

The problem? The BRCA test actually never happened, and the results were falsified. Hanna had a BRCA test done in 2016, which came back negative.

And now she’s permanently disfigured as a result of the erroneous diagnosis.

Hanna is suing four medical institutions, including Mid Michigan Physicians Group in Midland, and five doctors for negligence and fraud.

“Unbelievable carelessness, and arrogance, the doctors just proceeding on, and can’t imagine a doctor not looking at a, at least a report of an x-ray before doing surgery on somebody. They didn’t do this at all,” said Hanna’s attorney Victor Mastromarco.

Why Our Cleveland Misdiagnosis Lawyer Always Recommends a Second Opinion

Want some free advice from a cancer misdiagnosis lawyer in Cleveland? Always get a second opinion when it comes to serious medical conditions, especially cancer. A recent analysis found that more than 20 percent of all diagnoses are incorrect.

An analysis at the Mayo Clinic found that only 12 percent of the people who asked specialists at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota to review their cases had received correct diagnoses. The rest received diagnoses considered only partly accurate according to the Mayo doctors’ evaluations.

Fatal Errors in Judgment

Needless to say, mistakes left uncorrected can be devastating and oftentimes deadly. Previous analysis found that 10 percent of all hospital deaths are the result of a misdiagnosis.

“Diagnostic error is an area where we need more research, more study and more information,” said James Naessens, a professor of health services research at the Mayo Clinic, who led the study. “The second opinion is a good approach for certain patients to figure out what’s there and to keep costs down.”

So take the recommendation of your cancer misdiagnosis lawyer in Cleveland. Listen to your doctor, but then receive a second opinion. Having more opinions to weigh in on serious medical matters is good for your health.

Is Overdiagnosis Reason Enough to Call a Cancer Misdiagnosis Attorney in Cleveland?

A new study links mammograms to overdiagnosis of cancer. In the experience of our Cleveland cancer misdiagnosis attorney, overdiagnosis can in some ways be just as dangerous as misdiagnosis.The study linked routine mammogram screening to over-diagnosis of non-aggressive tumors, identifying tumors unlikely to be fatal without curbing the diagnosis of advanced cancer stages.

Better safe than sorry, right? Actually, no.

“Overdiagnosis means that healthy women get unnecessary breast cancer diagnoses,” Dr. Karsten Juhl Jorgensen, lead scientist in the study, told Fox News. “A breast cancer diagnosis is a life-changing event for the woman and her family, with substantial implications for their quality of life. It also leads to overtreatment with surgery, radiotherapy and sometimes chemotherapy – we know these treatments have serious, sometimes lethal, consequences.”

No Link for Advanced Cases

The study compared screening results over a single time period of two regions of Denmark. One offered biennial mammography for women aged 50 to 69, and one that didn’t. The study examined data on more than 1.4 million Danish women aged 35 to 84 from 1980 to 2010. Screening wasn’t linked to a lower incidence of advanced cancer cases.

So should women just forgo mammogram screening? Not exactly. The researchers suggested that would depend on age and family history. At best, however, results would be better taken with a grain of salt.

If you feel you may have been overdiagnosed, you might consider talking to one of our cancer misdiagnosis attorneys in Cleveland. We offer free consultations..