When your doctor misdiagnoses your lymphoma, the delay in treatment can lower your odds of beating the disease.
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Lymphoma can affect your lymph nodes, bone marrow, spleen, and thymus gland. Since the symptoms of lymphoma can be vague, doctors do not always diagnose this type of cancer correctly while it is in the early stages. The longer you go without a correct diagnosis, the more your disease can progress to later stages, giving you lower odds of survival. A misdiagnosis could cause you to experience additional symptoms or require more invasive treatment than you would have otherwise needed.
Misdiagnosis is considered medical malpractice. If this happened to you, a lymphoma misdiagnosis lawyer from Medical Malpractice Help might be able to help. Our attorneys will investigate your case and determine if your doctor committed malpractice. If so, we will help you try to recover damages.
Call us at 888-261-5614 today for a free consultation.
Diagnosing Lymphoma
Any of these signs could indicate lymphoma:
- The lymph nodes in your armpits, neck, or groin swell but do not hurt;
- You feel tired frequently;
- You experience shortness of breath;
- You have fevers or night sweats; or
- You lose weight without trying to.
If you told your doctor about these or other worrying symptoms, he or she should have performed a physical examination and checked for swelling in your liver, spleen, and the lymph nodes in your underarms, groin, and neck. Then, if your doctor uncovered anything of concern, he or she should have used one or more of these diagnostic methods to confirm that lymphoma was the cause of your symptoms.
Biopsy
For lymphoma, a biopsy means removing all or part of a lymph node and sending it to a laboratory for analysis of whether it contains lymphoma cells.
Blood Work
Blood work can determine how many you have of various types of blood cells. Lymphoma often creates a distinctive pattern of abnormalities in blood cell counts.
Bone Marrow Testing
To conduct this type of test, the doctor inserts a long needle into your hipbone and withdraws a sample of cells that the laboratory will examine for the presence of lymphoma cells.
Imaging Studies
CT, MRI, and PET scans can detect if the lymphoma has spread to other parts of your body. Cancer in the lymphatic system will affect organs throughout the body.
If your doctor did not take these steps to diagnose your cancer or made a careless mistake at some point during the process, you might be able to file for medical malpractice.
Treatments for Lymphoma
Your treatment plan depends on the type of lymphoma you have and how far it has advanced. The treatments will attempt to bring your disease into remission by killing many of the malignant cells.
If you have a very slow-growing form of lymphoma, your doctor might recommend holding off on treatment until the disease interferes with your daily life. You might have regular testing to actively monitor the status of your condition.
If your doctor opts for drug therapy, he or she might use:
- Chemotherapy to try to kill cancer cells;
- Immunotherapy drugs to activate your immune system to destroy the disease; or
- Targeted drugs to zero in on cellular anomalies present in your type of cancer.
Your doctor might choose radiation therapy as a non-invasive way to kill cancer cells inside the body. Otherwise, you could need a bone marrow transplant to rebuild healthy bone marrow to help your immune system fight the disease.
When Misdiagnosis of Lymphoma Is Medical Malpractice
If your doctor or another medical professional made a mistake that resulted in a delayed or incorrect diagnosis, it might amount to medical malpractice. The doctor must have failed to act as another doctor would have under similar circumstances. This breach of duty to you is negligence. If that negligence caused your misdiagnosis and you suffered harm as a result, you have a claim for malpractice.
The Liable Parties in a Lymphoma Misdiagnosis Case
Sometimes the negligent medical professional is the doctor, but at other times it can be a hospital or laboratory. For example, if the laboratory mixed up your biopsy tissue sample with someone else’s, it might report that you do not have lymphoma. On the other hand, if the doctor failed to order the appropriate testing or misinterpreted the testing results—and another doctor would not have made those mistakes under similar circumstances—the doctor was negligent.
We will collect your medical records and have a medical expert review them to determine if there was medical negligence and if it caused a delayed or incorrect diagnosis.
Consequences of Delaying Treatment Because of Misdiagnosis
When medical professionals do not diagnose cancer right away, it can spread to other parts of the body and go from an early stage to a later stage of the disease. You have a better chance of achieving remission of lymphoma if your doctor starts treatment while the disease is in the first stages. A misdiagnosis can lower your odds of survival and subject you to more invasive, uncomfortable treatments.
Misdiagnosis can also increase your medical expenses and make you miss more time from work, causing you to lose income. These and other related losses represent your damages.
When we file your claim, we will determine how much the misdiagnosis has cost you. We will let you know how much compensation you might recover after we investigate your case.
Getting Legal Help for a Lymphoma Misdiagnosis
When facing a diagnosis of cancer with all the frightening treatment options and mortality issues that cancer encompasses, you should be able to focus your strength and energy on getting well. The medical malpractice lawyers at Medical Malpractice Help will fight your legal battles for you, to try to get you the compensation you deserve.