Cancer Misdiagnosis - Aggressive representation for clients and families harmed by medical negligence
If your New Jersey doctor failed to timely diagnose cancer in you or a loved one, and delayed treatment cost you further injury, talk to New Jersey medical malpractice lawyers at Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow, LLP, with offices in Edison, Red Bank, and Toms River. Our firm has recovered more than $750 million in settlements and verdicts on behalf of people who suffered serious medical harm or lost a loved one because of negligent doctors who failed in their responsibility regarding diagnostic testing and timely treatment.
Cancer misdiagnosis
Receiving a diagnosis of cancer is not the certain death sentence it once was. With today’s medical treatment options, if cancer is caught early enough with a proper diagnosis, many types of cancers can be eliminated, and the patient can live a healthy, happy life. But effective treatment must begin with a timely and correct diagnosis.
Proper diagnosis and treatment for cancer follows a specific timeline of medical events. If you visited your doctor to discuss symptoms or for a routine exam and did not receive adequate diagnostic tests indicating cancer, the delay of just a short period of time could prove fatal. General practitioners don’t always have the diagnostic tools necessary for a complete run of tests, but the accepted standard of care is to refer patients to a specialist.
The topic of cancer misdiagnosis is a serious one, and one that you should discuss with your attorney right away if you are interested in pursuing compensation for your injuries. Our NJ cancer misdiagnosis lawyers are ready to help.
Failure to timely diagnose cancer of any type
We have experience representing clients in injury and wrongful death cases such as delayed diagnosis or misdiagnosis of conditions such as:
- Breast cancer
- Cervical cancer
- Colorectal cancer
- Lung cancer
- Ovarian cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Uterine cancer, endometrial cancer
What do I need to prove in a cancer misdiagnosis case in NJ?
In a cancer misdiagnosis case, you must be able to prove the same basic elements of a medical malpractice case, which is that a doctor-patient relationship existed, that the doctor, or other medical professional, failed to comport with the accepted standard of care for their specialty, and this breach of the standard of care was the direct cause of your injury. Given that with cancer, the earlier it is diagnosed, the better your treatment options. The injury occurs when the delay getting to the real diagnosis costs the patient time and health. The cancer keeps progressing whether it is acknowledged or not, so if your doctor fails to diagnose it at an early stage where is more easily treated, it will advance to a stage that will require more aggressive treatment. Using breast cancer treatment as an example, the American College of Surgeons National Cancer Database reports that when breast cancer is found and treated in stage I, the five-year survival rate is about 100%. But when it is found at stage IV, the survival rate plummets to 20%.
A medical malpractice lawsuit which claims the doctor failed to diagnose cancer requires lawyers to essentially look back in time. After consulting with their expert medical witness to develop an estimate of what stage the cancer might have been when the doctor failed to find it, they will compare that to what stage it was when the correct diagnosis was made. If the patient was exposed to additional harm because of the delayed diagnosis, he or she may have grounds for a medical malpractice lawsuit.
Consult with our experienced NJ medical malpractice lawyers today
When you discover that your stage IV cancer could have been found and treated at stage I, you may be filled with a combination of rage and sadness. The rage is for the time that you lost which no amount of money can restore. The sadness is because your odds of surviving the aggressive cancer treatments get lower and lower as the disease progresses.
At Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow, we understand the painful position you find yourself in, and we know how to discover evidence of medical negligence and hold the responsible party accountable for the harm done to you by failing to diagnose cancer.
We have recovered more than $750 million in settlements and verdicts for our clients, and we are ready to help you. Our partners are Certified Civil Trial Attorneys, which is a designation by the New Jersey Supreme Court, and our firm is accredited by the Better Business Bureau. When you need a trusted advocate to help you recover compensation for a medical negligence injury, our NJ medical malpractice attorneys are prepared to fight for justice on your behalf.
If a physician failed to diagnose your cancer, call Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow, LLP
From offices in Edison, Red Bank, and Toms River, our New Jersey medical malpractice lawyers at Eichen Crutchlow Zaslow, LLP advise and represent clients in medical malpractice and New Jersey personal injury litigation matters. Contact our NJ cancer misdiagnosis lawyers to schedule a consultation about your medical negligence claim. Call our office at 732-777-0100 or contact us online to arrange a free consultation.
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