Did your doctor misdiagnose, fail to diagnose, or have an unacceptable delay in diagnosing your testicular cancer?
Although testicular cancer is rare, it is still the leading cause of cancer for males between 15 and 35 years old. And although it is known for being highly treatable, even when it has spread to other areas of the body, your prognosis as a testicular cancer patient is still much better when it is caught early. Your doctor is responsible for making an accurate and timely diagnosis of testicular cancer.
But what if your doctor misdiagnosed or failed to diagnose your condition, and you suffered injury, illness, or needless pain and discomfort as a result? Then you could have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit, and a lawyer from Newsome | Melton can help you recover the compensation you deserve. We offer a free consultation to discuss your case and how we can help.
Call us today at 888-261-5614.
Call the Attorneys at Newsome | Melton if Your Doctor Failed to Recognize the Symptoms and Risk Factors of Testicular Cancer
Testicular cancer has several common symptoms. Since many of these symptoms involve localized pain or discomfort in the testes region, your doctor should know right away when presented with these symptoms that testicular cancer is a possible cause. There is no excuse for a doctor’s failure to order the proper evaluations to test for the disease when examining a patient with symptoms of testicular cancer.
In addition to easily recognizable symptoms, the condition also has several common risk factors of which your doctor should have been aware. Your doctor also should have conducted a full medical history on you in order to match certain aspects of your genetics or lifestyle to possible risk factors for diseases such as testicular cancer.
Testicular Cancer Common Symptoms
- An enlarged testicle or lump in the testicle
- A dull, heavy feeling in the testes or scrotum
- A dull abdominal or groin ache
- Fluid buildup in the scrotum
- Pain or discomfort in the scrotum or testes
- Breast enlargement or tenderness
- Pain in the lower back
Unlike some forms of cancer that share common symptoms with more common conditions such as the flu, testicular cancer has much more esoteric symptoms, many of which should immediately point to something being wrong.
Testicular Cancer Common Risk Factors
- Cryptorchidism (undescended testicle)
- Klinefelter syndrome and other conditions causing abnormal testicular development
- Family history of testicular cancer
- Age (the highest risk tier occurs between the ages of 15 and 35)
- Race (Caucasians have higher rates of the condition than African Americans)
Count on the Testicular Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawyers at Newsome | Melton to Fight for You
If you believe your doctor failed to pick up on your symptoms and risk factors for testicular cancer, and as a result did not make the proper diagnosis or had an unacceptable delay in making the proper diagnosis, an attorney from Newsome | Melton can help you go after the doctor for compensation.
Our dedicated legal team has helped many victims of cancer misdiagnosis recover damages from the doctors whose failures caused them to suffer harm. We want to put our resources to work for you. We will build a compelling medical malpractice case by demonstrating these four conditions to be true:
- Your doctor owed you a duty of care.
- Your doctor did not uphold their duty of care.
- Because your doctor did not uphold his or her duty, you suffered harm.
- Because of your injuries, you incurred specific economic or non-economic damages.
Duty of Care
First, we must show that your doctor owed you a duty of care. This is usually the easiest and most straightforward part of building a medical malpractice case, as every doctor has a duty of care to their patients. As such, as long as we can prove you were an active patient at the time of your doctor’s misdiagnosis, we can show a doctor-patient relationship and thus a duty of care.
Failure to Uphold Duty of Care
To show that your doctor failed to uphold the duty of care they had to you, we use something called the “reasonable person” standard. This standard compares your doctor’s actions to what a reasonable person — in this case, another physician — would have done in the same situation.
Often, we will bring in an expert witness from the medical community to assume the role of the reasonable person. Our witness will examine the evidence and determine if another doctor would have been expected to and would likely have made the correct diagnosis. If so, we can show your doctor did not uphold their duty of care.
Suffering of Harm
Having established that your doctor did not uphold their duty of care, our job is to link that failure to the harm you suffered. For example, if your cancer spread to other areas and became more difficult, painful, and expensive to treat, we can pull together evidence suggesting that you would have had a much easier road to recovery with a timely diagnosis.
Economic or Non-Economic Damages
Finally, we have to enumerate the specific damages you incurred because of your injuries. Once we do this, we can place a value on your case. Your damages can be both economic (e.g., medical bills, lost wages) and non-economic (e.g., pain and suffering).
The Testicular Cancer Misdiagnosis Lawyers at Newsome | Melton Are Ready to Start Fighting for You
You could have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit and compensation if your doctor misdiagnosed or failed to diagnose your testicular cancer. The attorneys at Newsome | Melton can help build a compelling case on your behalf and help you recover the damages you deserve.