About 12 million American adults who visit outpatient settings are misdiagnosed every year — amounting to one patient in 20. Half of those errors could lead to serious harm, according to a study in the British Medical Journal.
Incorrect, missed and delayed diagnoses are preventable. For decades, Anapol Weiss has successfully advocated for the victims of medical malpractice, especially patients who suffered the consequences of a medical misdiagnosis.
Anapol Weiss attorneys obtained a $2 million verdict in July 2013 for the estate of a 25-year-old woman who died as a result of pneumonia misdiagnosis after delivering a premature baby.
The young woman was six months pregnant when she went to the emergency room with symptoms of pneumonia. The staff discharged her with antibiotics the next day, but she was re-admitted for pneumonia in both lungs two days later. While hospitalized, the woman was treated for acute respiratory failure and sepsis. She underwent an emergency Caesarian section and gave birth to her daughter, who weighed only two and a half pounds. The mother then suffered a collapsed lung, and she passed away on July 6, 2009. Her pain and suffering lasted two days.
The defense argued the woman did not have all the signs of pneumonia, and that they provided sufficient treatment by sending her home with an antibiotic and instructions to return if she had further problems. The defense also claimed she “would have died anyway,” had she been admitted at the outset due to the severity of her condition.
The case was contested on negligence and causation. Anapol Weiss attorneys argued to the jury that medical negligence occurred during the mother’s first admission – when the defendants failed to order a chest x-ray to diagnose pneumonia and failed to admit her for treatment and observation.
The young woman’s daughters will never get their mother back, but Anapol Weiss was proud to be able to bring some justice to her and her family.