If your doctor misdiagnosed or failed to diagnose plasmacytoma or myeloma in you or a loved one, you could have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Plasmacytoma and multiple myeloma are cancers of the plasma cells. They often occur together, with myeloma leading to plasmacytoma tumors growing within the soft tissue or bony skeleton. Regardless of whether you have one or both of these conditions, early detection and treatment are vital in order to have a high chance of recovery. A missed or delayed diagnosis can have disastrous consequences.
The plasmacytoma and myeloma misdiagnosis lawyers at Newsome | Melton can help you hold the doctor accountable who caused you or your loved one harm by failing to diagnose cancer. We have a strong track record of recovering damages for medical malpractice victims and want to put it to work for you.
For a free case evaluation, call us today at 888-261-5614.
Signs, Symptoms, and Risk Factors Your Doctor Should Have Seen
Plasmacytoma and myeloma have many signs and symptoms. It is part of your doctor’s duty of care to recognize these symptoms and, when they are present, to order the proper evaluations and lab tests to see if the condition is present. Moreover, certain characteristics involving your age, race, gender, and lifestyle increase your risk of developing plasmacytoma or myeloma. Your doctor should be vigilant about recognizing these factors.
If your doctor misdiagnosed or failed to diagnose your plasmacytoma or myeloma, it may mean they either did not notice that you had signs pointing to the condition, or did notice but failed to follow up on it.
Here are some of the most common signs and symptoms of myeloma:
- Hypercalcemia (too much calcium in the blood)
- Anemia (low red blood cell count, or reduced cell function)
- Renal damage (kidney failure)
- Increased susceptibility to infection
- Bone pain, bone swelling, or fractures (this is also the most common sign of plasmacytoma)
- High levels of protein in the blood or urine
- Unintentional weight loss
If you presented one or more of these symptoms, your doctor should have recognized myeloma as a possibility, even if it was a rare one. Moreover, the condition has a long list of risk factors. These involve a mix of genetic and lifestyle elements. The presence of more symptoms along with one or more risk factors indicates an even more urgent need to test for plasmacytoma and myeloma right away.
The risk factors for plasmacytoma and myeloma are as follows:
- Being male
- Being over 50 years old
- A history of Gaucher Disease
- Having relatives who have had myeloma or plasmacytoma
- Being African American
- Obesity
- Exposure to radiation
- Working in petroleum-related industries
If you had one or more of these risk factors plus symptoms of the condition, your doctor may have had a duty to test for it and try to rule it out. By not ordering the proper testing, or by ordering it but not interpreting the results correctly, your doctor may have been negligent in their duty of care to you.
The Newsome | Melton Team Fights for Fair Compensation
At Newsome | Melton, our plasmacytoma and myeloma misdiagnosis lawyers understand that the success of your medical malpractice case rests on the strength of the evidence we are able to collect and assemble. This evidence must not only be convincing but also prove that the right elements are present in your case.
Specifically, a winning medical malpractice case demonstrates four things:
- Your doctor owed you a duty of care.
- Your doctor failed to uphold their duty of care.
- Because of your doctor’s failure, you were injured in some way.
- As a result of your injuries, you incurred economic or non-economic damages.
Duty of Care
All doctors have a duty of care to their patients. They must provide thorough and high-quality care at all times. Accordingly, to show your doctor had a duty of care to you, we simply must demonstrate that a doctor-patient relationship existed. We can do this by presenting billing statements from the office or insurance paperwork showing the doctor was reimbursed for providing you care.
Breach of Duty
Once we have established a duty of care, we must show how your doctor breached it. We use the reasonable person test to establish a breach of duty. The test asks one question: Would a reasonable doctor who was presented with the same information have been expected to make the proper diagnosis?
If the answer to that question is yes and we can show this with our evidence, then we have successfully demonstrated a breach of duty.
Injury
We must show not only that your doctor breached their duty of care but also that you suffered some kind of harm because of this breach. In the case of a plasmacytosis or myeloma misdiagnosis, most likely we can show how the cancer grew or spread in your body, because it was not treated promptly.
The reason it was not treated promptly, of course, is that your doctor misdiagnosed it or failed to diagnose it in time.
Damages
To tie your case together, we have to show the specific monetary damages you have suffered because of your injury. These damages can be economic, meaning they involve an actual financial loss, or non-economic. Once we investigate your case, we can determine its total value by tabulating your economic and non-economic losses.
Recieve a Free Case Evaluation With Newsome | Melton
At Newsome | Melton, our lawyers are serious about getting our clients the compensation they deserve for their medical malpractice injuries. We want to help you get your life back. We offer a free, no-risk case evaluation.