California patients want to be active participants in their healthcare. Asking questions, taking notes and paying attention to doctors' and nurses' instructions can make it easier for patients to care for themselves independently. An alert patient can not only make his life easier by fully understanding what medications he is taking, but may also be able to catch a doctor's potentially fatal medication error or challenge a potential misdiagnosis.
Patients ought to be cognizant of the full course of treatment they are receiving, or not receiving, if that is the case. In some instances, a doctor's failure to order essential tests, such as blood tests, as reported in a previous post, may lead to a doctor administering an incorrect drug or dosage. Doctors may prescribe a dangerous combination of prescriptions, or, as sometimes occurs, make a serious misdiagnosis.
A misdiagnosis can prove to be very damaging to a person's health. A patient has a better chance of beating certain diseases, like cancer, that are diagnosed early. A doctor who has not properly identified a person's symptoms, and who therefore may be treating a patient with the wrong drugs and wrong course of treatment, can prevent a patient from recovering.
Steven I. Kastner has experience helping patients who have faced such a situation. When patients with conditions, such as heart disease, strokes or infections, receive a misdiagnosis or a delayed diagnosis, their health may suffer. No matter how involved a patient is in his or her healthcare, the doctor is the one with the medical experience who ought to be making the proper diagnosis and recommendations for the patient's improved health. Unfortunately, that is not always the case, and when a person's health suffers because of mistreatment by a doctor, he or she may have a legal cause of action.
More information about misdiagnosis is available on our webpage.
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