This is the question one woman — who is not from Texas — put before the court in her area. After days of complaining of pain, her primary care physician and doctors at another medical facility failed to correctly diagnose her condition. Her case illustrates the harm that a misdiagnosis can do, and she claims to have experienced it twice over the course of several days.
The woman experienced pain in her foot and went to the emergency room. When she went to her primary care physician three days later, her doctor diagnosed the problem with her big toe and foot as being gout. He gave her medication and sent her on her way with medication to treat that ailment. Her pain only continued to get worse, and her doctor’s office advised her to go to the emergency room.
By this time, the West Virginia woman’s pain and swelling had increased, and her toes were discolored. Emergency room personnel advised her to switch to another medication and sent her home. Finally, she went to a hospital that performed the necessary tests to discover that she suffered from a severe blood clot in her groin. Ultimately, doctors were forced to remove her foot and part of her lower leg.
Sadly, this woman’s situation may not be unique. Many Texas residents experience a misdiagnosis that results in serious harm or even death. While it is true that medical practitioners are human and make mistakes, their mistakes could put someone’s life in jeopardy. When someone in the medical field causes harm to a patient due to a failure to meet the appropriate standard of care, the victim — or the victim’s family in the case of death — may file a medical malpractice claim seeking restitution for the damage done, which could also prevent another innocent victim from being harmed.
Source: wvrecord.com, “Woman sues Lifepoint Hospitals for medical malpractice“, Kyla Asbury, June 13, 2017
