If you were injured or misdiagnosed from a biopsy, a medical malpractice lawyer can help determine if you qualify for compensation.
A biopsy can be an effective diagnostic tool, but if a doctor or other healthcare professional misreads, mishandles, or misdiagnoses the results it could have serious ramifications on your overall health. A botched biopsy itself can lead to complications such as excessive bleeding, tissue loss, and even paralysis.
If you or a loved one was injured by a poorly performed or misdiagnosed biopsy, please call Newsome | Melton. We help victims of biopsy medical malpractice and can tell you about your legal options. For a free consultation, call (888) 526-8947.
Why Biopsy Malpractice Is a Serious Threat to You and Your Loved Ones
Progressive diseases such as cancer are easier to treat and with a higher success rate when caught early. Biopsy medical errors can mean the difference between life or death. Imagine if you have cancer but told you do not. You lose valuable time by delaying or forgoing treatment. Likewise, if you do not have cancer, a false positive misdiagnosis could lead to unnecessary surgery and other treatments.
A Biopsy Malpractice Lawyer Protects Your Rights
You could be facing huge expenses, even bankruptcy, as the result of a misdiagnosed or botched biopsy. There is also the mental anguish of an incorrect diagnosis. The most tragic outcome is a loved one who received a false negative cancer diagnosis and did not receive treatment in time. That is why you should consult a biopsy malpractice lawyer. You might be entitled to recover compensation for physical, mental, and financial damages.
Damages You Could Be Entitled to After Biopsy Malpractice
Healthcare professionals and medical facilities have medical malpractice insurance. We typically pursue compensation first through this insurance. However, we have successfully recovered compensation with a courtroom verdict.
Some common kinds of damages that are awarded in medical malpractice cases include:
- Medical bills
- Lifecare expenses
- Lost earning ability
- Pain and suffering
- Wrongful death
- Mental anguish
You Can Afford Legal Representation With Our No Recovery, No Fee Policy
Most people do not have the legal knowledge, time, or money to pursue compensation for medical negligence. Newsome | Melton is a nationwide law firm specializing in acute injury medical malpractice cases. We work on a contingency fee basis only. You do not pay attorney fees unless we are successful in recovering compensation. Please call for a free, no-obligation consultation at (888) 526-8947.
We Can Help You Recover Compensation
Newsome | Melton attorneys are devoted to helping those injured by medical negligence. We have a team of both lawyers and healthcare professionals to address the legal and medical aspects of your case.
Our process for protecting your rights and recovering compensation includes:
- Examine the details of your situation to determine the liable party or parties.
- Review your medical records and history; we may interview your doctor and/or another medical specialist.
- Investigate your individual biopsy process for errors in collecting, processing, and transporting the specimen.
- Review the health and safety records of all involved staff and facilities.
Common Biopsy Errors That Endanger Your Health
A false or misdiagnosis is among the most serious of biopsy errors, but there are others. After your doctor or healthcare professional orders a biopsy, there is a chain of events that can easily lead to human error, procedural mistakes, and incorrect diagnoses.
Some of the most common types of biopsy errors and their causes include:
- Cross contamination is the result of procedural errors and carelessness. Inadequate handwashing, working on too many specimens at a time, and an unclean laboratory environment contribute to cross contamination. This leads to false positive, false negative, or inconclusive results.
- Specimen identification errors are mislabeled specimens that can cause results to be switched between two or more patients. These errors can occur at the doctor’s office when the specimen was taken, at the lab, or even during transportation.
- Interpretative mistakes can be made by any number of medical professionals who have access to the biopsy. Sometimes it is the pathologist, a lab technician, or the patient’s primary healthcare provider.
We Hold Negligent Medical Professionals Accountable
We vigorously pursue compensation for medical mistakes and negligence, including biopsy malpractice and catastrophic injury. You should be aware that there is a statute of limitations on filing a medical malpractice claim or lawsuit. In Florida, for example, there is a general time limit of two years from the time the malpractice was discovered.
What Determines Medical Malpractice
There are specific liability conditions that must be met to file a medical malpractice insurance claim or lawsuit. These include:
- Your healthcare professionals did not deliver an expected standard of care.
- This negligence caused you injuries that would not have occurred otherwise.
- Your injuries have created physical, mental, and financial damages such as medical bills and mental anguish.
Tragically, Biopsy Errors Are Commonplace
As medical malpractice lawyers, we have seen many of these errors occur with alarming frequency. A recent study of breast cancer biopsies found that initial pathology reports were not as exact as previously thought.
Although much of the biopsy process is out of your control, there are some measures that might reduce the risk of future errors. These include:
- Double-check the labels and chart during the biopsy collection to ensure that your name, date of birth, and other information are correct.
- Get a second opinion by having another professional interpret your specimen or by doing another biopsy.