Misdiagnosis

Medical malpractice cases can often revolve around a misdiagnosis or a delay in diagnosis. In these cases, a health care professional can fail to identify a disease, or mismanage the diagnostic testing procedure. Examples of misdiagnosis include a health care professional failing to get a medical history, order the appropriate test for the illness, or recognize the symptoms of the illness.

For some health conditions, such as a heart issue, a delay in diagnosis can lead to death, while a delay in diagnosing cancer can lead to a much poorer prognosis once the cancer is ultimately discovered.