Have You Suffered a Wrongful Medical Diagnosis?

The UK’s NHS deals with 1 million patients every 36 hours, a mammoth feat for the world-leading health service. But things can go wrong, and they sometimes do – in the form of medical misdiagnosis. If you believe you have been a victim of medical misdiagnosis, you should get in touch with a medical negligence solicitor to discuss your case further – but in the meantime, you can learn a little more about the field of medical misdiagnosis, and some common examples of cases involving misdiagnosis.

What is Medical Misdiagnosis?

Medical misdiagnosis is a specific form of medical negligence, for which victims can potentially receive compensation via court processes. It is one of five common kinds of medical negligence claim, the other four of which comprise: prescription errors, surgical negligence, birth injuries and medical advice negligence. Medical misdiagnosis specifically refers to a medical practitioner making an error in the diagnosis of a condition or disease – whether by misdiagnosing the condition as something else which the patient does not have, or by not diagnosing a condition at all where one is present.

Medical misdiagnosis can have far-reaching implications for its victims, as improper care and treatment can be recommended which not only does not treat their condition but could also give rise to dangerous side-effects and further injury. As such, victims of medical misdiagnosis may have a case as a result of the worsening of their initial condition, or by the suffering of injury through improper treatment, or even both.

Common Types of Misdiagnoses

Medical misdiagnosis is the act of a medical practitioner either missing a diagnosis or misdiagnosing a patient – as such, it can happen with any disease or condition. However, there are some common conditions which can give rise to misdiagnosis, by virtue of their prevalence and their symptoms.

Coeliac disease is a pathological intolerance to gluten, which is a component present in many fibre sources such as wheat and barley. Coeliac disease is commonly misdiagnosed as IBS, a bowel condition indicating sensitivity of the colon; the stomach-based symptoms are somewhat similar, and testing for coeliac is inconsistent – but misdiagnosis of coeliac disease can result in malnutrition for sufferers further down the line.

Parkinson’s Disease is also a common feature of misdiagnosis cases, as its major symptom can be mistaken for a benign tremor, and it can in some cases present like a head injury. Parkinson’s is a degenerative disease, meaning that missing the window for early treatment can have disastrous consequences for sufferers.

Depression is a particularly prevalent example of what conditions are often misdiagnosed as. A famous study carried out in the 1990s revealed that depression may be incorrectly attributed to somewhere between 30% and 50% of women, where physical conditions with similar symptoms to depression are the true culprit.

A Medical Misdiagnosis Case Study

A heart-breaking story of medical misdiagnoses and the disastrous effects they had on two young women was published to the Huffington Post, as one discovered stage-3 ovarian cancer after years of misdiagnoses of IBS and intestinal fissures and the other received an endometriosis diagnosis after years of invasive treatment for  non-existent interstitial cystitis. The former died, and the latter lived to tell the tale.