Home / Medical Malpractice Medical Malpractice Lawyers in Monmouth County and Ocean County, NJ
Experienced, Compassionate Attorneys Fight for Substantial Damages When Doctors in Monmouth County and Ocean County Misdiagnose or Fail to Properly Diagnose a Condition
We rely on healthcare professionals to do no harm. We depend on them to diagnose conditions and prescribe timely and proper treatment to expedite healing or even save lives. A medical professional’s preventable mistake can result in serious injury and even wrongful death. This is especially true when a physician misdiagnoses or fails to diagnose a serious condition such as cancer, heart disease or treatable diseases including, for example, diabetes or hypertension.
If you or someone you love has suffered at the hands of a negligent doctor or healthcare facility, you need a knowledgeable, aggressive personal injury attorney who will leave no stone unturned in an effort to pursue your medical malpractice claim and hold careless or incompetent health care providers responsible for tragic and sometimes fatal consequences. With offices in Red Bank, Hazlet and Brick, NJ, Drazin and Warshaw, P.C. has collected millions of dollars in damages on behalf of injured clients because of diagnostic or surgical mistakes. Rest assured, we will find the finest experts to evaluate your medical records, use all of our skill and know-how, and work tirelessly to get you the justice you deserve. Contact us today to discuss your case.
How Often Do Doctors Fail to Diagnose Serious Medical Conditions?
The statistics regarding preventable diagnostic mistakes in the United States are staggering. According to the prestigious BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal), 12 million adults annually — that’s one in approximately every 20 adult patients — gets misdiagnosed when seeking medical care outside of hospitals. In at least half of those cases, it was reported that the doctor’s failure to properly diagnose a condition resulted in significant harm to the patient. The study, published in 2014, doesn’t even take into account preventable diagnostic errors made in hospitals, nor were children included in the research.
There are many reasons healthcare workers make mistakes diagnosing serious conditions such as cancer, including breast, prostate, ovarian and uterine cancers. Some medical experts believe doctors are fatigued from being overworked. Additionally, busy medical facilities pull doctors in many directions as they deal with a variety of patients and injuries and conditions. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reports that cough, abdominal pain and shortness of breath are the most common symptoms of misdiagnosed conditions. Each symptom could indicate a condition that is not serious, but they are also signs of catastrophic illness that must be taken seriously and properly evaluated before being dismissed as unimportant.
Regardless of how or why serious medical mistakes were allowed to happen, you deserve to be compensated for your injuries. We focus on the following types of malpractice:
Misdiagnosis of a Condition: If a doctor doesn’t recognize the symptoms of an illness or relate them to the appropriate condition, patients can be easily misdiagnosed. For example, horrible headaches may not be adequately evaluated even though they are often associated with a brain aneurysm. Severe abdominal pain may be attributed to gas or indigestion when the real issue is appendicitis. When a patient is misdiagnosed, their true problem may go undetected and untreated, and in some cases the medicine prescribed can have serious adverse consequences.
Delayed Diagnosis of a Condition: When a physician fails to detect symptoms of a serious illness, such as cancer or heart disease, it stands to reason that they won’t order the proper diagnostic tests. Delayed testing leads to delayed diagnosis, thereby delaying treatment. Life-threatening conditions, such as cancer, tragically can advance and cause serious injury or, if the patient doesn’t receive treatment in a timely manner, death.
Failure to Diagnose a Condition: We rely on medical professionals to diagnose health-related issues. Doctors rely on diagnostic tests such as x-rays, CAT scans, MRIs, Pap smears, laboratory tests, etc. If a radiologist misreads a test or the lab workers do not properly document important findings, the patient’s condition will not be diagnosed accurately and, far too often, there are tragic consequences.
We also handle a variety of other medical malpractice cases including:
Why Choose Drazin & Warshaw to Represent You in Your Monmouth County, NJ Medical Malpractice Lawsuit?
When you’ve been injured by a healthcare worker’s preventable mistake, we understand you may be angry and frustrated. You trusted them to “do no harm.” They failed you and your family. Three generations of lawyers at Drazin & Warshaw have been proud to be a strong voice for victims of medical malpractice in New Jersey. For more than 70 years, we have fought hard to get our clients the compensation and justice they deserve.
Our reputation throughout Monmouth County and Ocean County, and across New Jersey, speaks for itself. We are known as the personal injury lawyers who never back down. We put extensive resources and outstanding levels of medical knowledge to work for each client who walks through our doors in need of compassionate, aggressive legal representation.
In fact, we are very good at what we do. We have had verdicts that still stand as landmark decisions in the areas of medical malpractice and product liability. Noteworthy successes include:
- A $19,400,000 jury verdict for a plaintiff who suffered cerebral palsy when doctors delayed performing a Cesarean section during childbirth.
- A $500,000 settlement for a plaintiff who was eventually diagnosed with rectal cancer. The delayed diagnosis allowed the illness to progress, causing significant injury.
Diagnostic mistakes are caused when the wrong tests are ordered, the tests are misinterpreted, the doctor doesn’t get a full history on the patient to get an understanding of the entire medical picture at hand, etc. These are all preventable errors. If you or someone you love is a victim of delayed diagnosis, misdiagnosis or a complete failure to diagnose a serious condition such as cancer, you may be able to recover damages in a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Contact an Experienced Monmouth County Medical Malpractice Lawyer about Injuries Caused by a Doctor’s Error Today for Free
Don’t wait to contact Drazin & Warshaw about your medical malpractice case. New Jersey has strict deadlines for filing these cases. Talk with a knowledgeable lawyer today for free to find out your rights and how deadlines imposed by the NJ statute of limitations apply to your case.
We work on contingency. This means that in addition to a free consultation and no upfront legal fees, you won’t pay Drazin & Warshaw a dime for our legal services unless we collect damages for you in your medical malpractice or failure to diagnose lawsuit.
