malpractice question

[chef]

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2 cases:

pt comes in complaining of fever & abd pain. doc misses diagnosis of appendicitis, pt dies.

pt comes in w/ mono, but docs miss the diagnosis and gives him antibiotics for flu, and pt dies of spleen rupture.



if a pt dies of your misdiagnosis, can you get sued?

 

[edmadison]

Originally posted by chef
2 cases:

pt comes in complaining of fever & abd pain. doc misses diagnosis of appendicitis, pt dies.

pt comes in w/ mono, but docs miss the diagnosis and gives him antibiotics for flu, and pt dies of spleen rupture.



if a pt dies of your misdiagnosis, can you get sued?

Yes, and you can be sued if you got the diagnosis right too. You can also be sued if the patient lives. You can be sued if the patient doesn't suffer any significant sequellae from the misdiagnosis, but worried about it a lot.


Failure to diagnosis appendicitis is a fairly common medical error. Mono really should not be confused with the flu because if the patient has fever and myalgia but not cough, the doc should do a mono test!

Ed