When you're not feeling up to par, you know that the best thing you can do is consult with a medical professional. It's your hope that this person will examine you, find out what's going on and help you get back on your feet.
However, this doesn't always happen. There are times when misdiagnoses occur, often leading you to experience more pain and discomfort. Unfortunately, there are also times when a misdiagnosis results in a more serious health concern or even death.
Here are several medical conditions that are regularly misdiagnosed:
- Heart attack. Some warning signs of a heart attack are clear, but still others may not be as obvious. Consequently, sometimes patients get sent home without treatment, e.g., doctors diagnose the issue as indigestion, a much less serious health concern.
- Cancer. Some types of cancer are more likely to result in misdiagnoses, such as lung, colorectal and breast. The longer a person goes without treatment, the more likely the cancer will advance past a successfully treatable stage.
- Drug overdoses. Some patients aren't always truthful about their drug use, which can make it more difficult for a doctor to diagnose suspected overdoses in their patients.
- Stroke. Just as with the other medical conditions on this list, fast treatment of strokes is essential to patient survival rates. In patients experiencing slow-onset strokes, misdiagnosis is much more common.
Most people understand that they must trust the judgment of their medical team. For this reason, patients don't often question their doctors when they say nothing is wrong. Instead, they go along with their diagnoses and hope that the problems resolve on their own in the near future.
If you take this approach and later find that your doctor made an error, you could find yourself in a worse position. At that point, you still need to focus on your health and well- being, but also your legal rights to determine if you can hold the person responsible for his or her actions.