Hypoxia and Medicine

Can you sue a Doctor for failure to diagnose a medical condition?

My child has a rare medical condition.My wife and I asked this Doctor numerous times about it and he just told us that our child would grow out of it which wasn't the case at all.He didn't run one test he just told us every time we asked that our child would grow out of it. I just want to know our options.

Public Comments

1. No, you can always get a second opinion
2. Probably not. The rare thing give him an out. Find a new focus. lp
3. no
4. If you can show negligence. If a similarly situated doctor reasonably should have discovered the condition, by running tests or otherwise, and this particular doctor failed to do so, then he was probably negligent.
5. If you can show that your doctor acted negligently by not running any tests and your child was injured by this failure then: Yes, you may have a case.
6. I think the rare medical conditon is going to be a big factor. Doctors aren't magicians.
7. Oh please, you just want to sue somebody and you see this opportunity. Don't ruin someone's career and life over something like this. Have you ever watched "Mystery Diagnosis"? Lots of good, reputable doctors can become stumped over conditions especially if they present themselves in a way that could easily be a common condition. Then you go and get a second or third opinion and find out that your kid has something completely rare. Not every doctor is able to find what's wrong with everyone. You found what was wrong and your kid is fine. Move on with life.
8. You can sue, you can sue anybody for anything.The question is can you win. In order to win you must be able to PROVE that the Doctor ignored your requests to run a test. Failure to diagnose would not be what you want to sue for, BUT if you go for the Doctor neglected to run tests at your request you might just have a case. The best thing to do is contact a medical malpractice attorney in your state. I hope your child is ok, and that you are seeing another Doctor. Good luck
9. Doctors are not infallible. Their diagnosis is by definition just an opinion. A doctor cannot be expected to know every symptom of every ailment that can strike the human body. A missed or misdiagnosis is not a cause for a law suit of negligence. The defense will be, that you, as the parent, had and have, every opportunity to seek other advice. I think that any right minded lawyer will tell you that in a case such as this, you will have an impossible job trying to show and prove malpractise. That is the advise that I would give you, but there is always going to be a lawyer that will promise the earth and sue on your behalf. I trust your baby is now getting the care that is needed for its complaint.
10. Same thing happened to my grandchild. thanks to many miracles she is alive today. Yes, you can sue. The least you should do is report the Dr. to the medical board. Before you sue though you must ask yourself if the Dr. had a reasonable belief that nothing serious was wrong. In our case the Dr. didn't even notice that all her organs were on the wrong sides. And her other condition was very very obvious. If you asked for tests and he refused then there is a problem. If you didn't know to ask for tests then you were relying on the Dr.'s word. be sure to ask him why he felt it would go away. Did he even know about the symptoms of the rare medical condition your child has? Dr.s aren't gods, he may feel very very bad about the situation. talk with him. tell him you are hurt and angry. Maybe your case has made him a better Dr. Who knows. really, talk to him. i have another grandchild, our first, who did die due to a rare condition. I am very angry that the doctors didn't do more tests when they thought it had been cured--she died a few months later. but I don't want to ruin our memories by suing. We don't want to go through the pain again. And we know that the Dr.'s were likely following protocol--even if it was the wrong path.