Your Options When Health Care Professionals Fail You

In early September, we wrote about the importance of understanding brain injury symptoms. If you don’t know that something could be an indication you need to seek treatment, you might not see a doctor in time to ensure the best possible outcome with an issue. This is true for brain injuries and any other health issue.

But what happens when it’s the health care provider that doesn’t seem to understand your issue? Alternatively, what if the health care provider doesn’t act in a timely manner or fails to appropriately treat you once he or she has reached a diagnosis? Failure to treat is an error which can lead to a case of medical malpractice; for patients, failure to treat can turn a minor or serious medical issue into a devastating situation.

While failure to treat can occur in almost any situation if a clinician is negligent, it is more common with several types of conditions. Appendicitis, for example, is often left untreated because doctors don’t reach the right conclusions in time to act. The same can be true for heart attacks, stroke, lyme disease, cancer and even allergies. In other cases, such as diabetes, doctors might reach the right diagnosis but fail to provide the right level or type of care for a number of reasons.

The reasons behind a failure to treat can help determine if medical providers made a mistake or if there was a willful neglect. In either case, the patient can seek compensation for injuries and expenses that resulted from the error. In cases where willful neglect occurred, bringing a medical malpractice lawsuit can bring that issue to light and might even save future patients from the same struggle.