Phoenix Cancer Attorney Experts
People with cancer have the potential to survive the disease if they are diagnosed promptly and receive treatment early. A patient who is misdiagnosed does not obtain the treatment he or she needs, and the results can be devastating. These patients’ treatment is delayed, and this causes even more damage to their health. When they finally do receive therapy, it is often much more expensive than it would have been if they were treated in the beginning. Some people do not survive this ordeal.
Medical professionals with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Texas performed research in this area and learned that 500,000 diagnostic errors occur for every 500 million cases. Even more alarming is the fact that physicians acknowledged that they diagnose a patient’s illness incorrectly at least once a month. However, physicians do not always readily admit it every time this occurs because they are concerned about being the subject of a lawsuit, so the department’s statistic may be much too low.
Experience Is What Is Needed When Cancer Is Misdiagnosed
Cancer patients who were misdiagnosed must contact medical malpractice attorney Brian T. Leonard right away. Winning a medical malpractice lawsuit in court requires extensive experience and training in this area, and Mr. Leonard has received it over several decades as a member of the law firm that his father and godfather started years before. Just recently, Mr. Leonard and his father Jim opened their own practice where they will continue to offer their clients the same high level of expertise that they have given to the people of Phoenix for the past several years.
Medical malpractice lawsuits are some of the most difficult cases to investigate. The errors could occur in one or more of several different areas. For example, the condition could have been misdiagnosed because the physician failed to perform enough tests. When appropriate tests are ordered, the results can be misinterpreted.
When Cancer Is Not Really the Problem
In some instances, patients received a cancer diagnosis, but they did not actually have cancer. They received treatment for this disease and suffered irreversible complications because of it. They may have been given chemotherapy and suffered the debilitating effects of this treatment when it was entirely unnecessary. The result could also have been that their physicians scheduled them for surgery in which they lost healthy portions of their bodies without cause. Of course, these patients’ lives will never be the same. Similarly, those who were misdiagnosed and received treatment too late often paid the ultimate price.
Mr. Leonard’s Success Stories
Mr. Leonard is a medical malpractice attorney who tried and settled medical malpractice and wrongful death lawsuits in Arizona with two different law firms before he opened The Leonard Law Firm, P.L.LC. In a previous case, Mr. Leonard was able to obtain a multi-million dollar judgment for a cancer patient whose physicians failed to diagnose the condition. He also had success in a wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf of the survivors of a cancer patient who passed away because of a delayed diagnosis. These clients received a six-figure judgment.