What are my rights regarding a misdiagnosis?

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What are my rights regarding a misdiagnosis?

I had ACL surgery on my left knee 4 years ago and have had problems with it since.It consistently gets reinjured when doing any activity. After countless visits X-rays and MRI’s he said there was no damage and advised me to wait a few weeks and cleared me to continue playing. He took out the hardware used in that ACL surgery 14 months ago to see if it would help and it did not. Upon visiting a new doctor he immediately told me I have severe arthritis in my left knee after his first X-ray. Something my previous doctor never mentioned to me. He then asked for my MRI and report from my previous doctor and completely disagreed with it. He said the arthritis was more severe than he thought. If I would have known, I could have avoided all of this.

Asked on February 12, 2015 under Personal Injury, New Jersey

Answers:

SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney

Answered 9 years ago | Contributor

A misdiagnosis is a form of malpractice. Assuming that the diagnosis you received was unreasonably careless (because the law accepts that medicine is not perfect; therefore, it's not enough that the diagnosis be wrong, but it must rather be unreasonably careless or simply not up to professional standards), you could in a lawsuit potentially recover additional medical costs caused by the misdiagnosis, as well as "pain and suffering" for any impairment or disability you suffered--or will suffer in the future--due to the misdiagnosis, including due to the failure to provide a proper diagnosis that would have allowed you to begin medical treatment in a timely fashion.


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