Coney Island Hospital Faces Medical Malpractice Lawsuit Over Alleged Misdiagnosis

 A Brooklyn man has filed a medical malpractice lawsuit against a Coney Island hospital alleging that hospital staff misdiagnosed his wife’s condition as a K2 or synthetic marijuana overdose when she was suffering from a bacterial meningitis infection. According to a Gothamist report, the incident occurred Jan. 31. When the woman was brought to the emergency room, she was not seen by a doctor, but by a nurse and a physician’s assistant who determined that her symptoms were consistent with K2 overdose. The woman went into cardiac arrest shortly afterward and died.

Medical Negligence Alleged
The husband brought attention to his wife’s alleged misdiagnosis shortly after her death, triggering an investigation by the New York State Department of Health. In April, officials discovered that the hospital had violated the federal code and/or patient rights in six different ways and in March, a number of the hospital’s officials stepped down from their positions.
The hospital’s management maintained that this change in leadership was not related to the woman’s death or the investigation. Now, the woman’s husband is suing the hospital along with several of its doctors, nurses and physicians’ assistants alleging negligence, failure to obtain informed consent and wrongful death. The autopsy results showed that the woman had not been using synthetic marijuana, but had been infected with meningitis.
Proving Misdiagnosis
According to a recent study, at least one in 20 U.S. adults or 12 million people each year may be misdiagnosed when they go to see their doctors. Researchers estimated that about half of these diagnostic errors might lead to serious harm such as cancer misdiagnosis, which may prove lethal. A large number of medical malpractice lawsuits stem from misdiagnosis of medical conditions, illnesses or injuries.
When a doctor’s diagnostic error leads to incorrect treatment, delayed treatment or lack of treatment, a patient’s condition may worsen and he or she may die. In a medical malpractice lawsuit based on misdiagnosis, plaintiffs (the injured persons) must usually prove that a doctor-patient relationship existed; the doctor was negligent; the patient suffered actual harm as the result of the negligence; and that the doctor’s negligence caused the patient’s injury or death.
More specifically, in a medical malpractice case involving diagnostic error, the plaintiff must prove that a doctor having a similar specialty, under similar circumstances, would not have misdiagnosed the patient’s condition and that a reasonably skilled and competent doctor under similar circumstances would have arrived at the right diagnosis.
Harm Caused by Misdiagnosis
Any form of misdiagnosis – wrong diagnosis, delayed diagnosis or failure to diagnose – can have serious or even lethal consequences for patients. When patients do not receive the right diagnosis, they may not get the medicine or required treatment in time to prevent the condition from worsening. In cases where the victim is incorrectly diagnosed, he or she may be taking the wrong medication or going through unnecessary procedures that are painful and costly. In cases where a doctor diagnoses a patient with a disease he or she doesn’t have, the patient may also undergo significant anxiety, stress and emotional distress.
Misdiagnoses are often caused by a medical professional’s failure to screen for a particular medical condition, failure to refer a patient to a specialist, misreading or misinterpreting symptoms, misreading lab test results or failure to consult with the patient about his or her symptoms. Wrong diagnoses also occur when a medical professional fails to properly follow up and investigate the potential causes of the symptoms that are reported by the patient.
Compensation for Affected Victims
Those affected by medical errors or medical negligence can seek compensation for damages including, but not limited to, medical expenses, lost income and benefits, loss of life’s enjoyment, permanent injury, disability, past and future pain and suffering, etc. The value or worth of each medical malpractice claim will depend on the facts of each case and the extent of injuries and losses sustained by each plaintiff. When individuals lose loved ones as the result of medical negligence, they can file what is known as a wrongful death lawsuit against the medical professionals involved and/or the hospital.
If you or a loved one has been injured in New York as a result of medical negligence, the experienced New York personal injury attorneys at the Law Offices of Kenneth A. Wilhelm can help you better understand your legal rights and options, and also fight hard to recover just compensation for you. Our clients have received verdicts of $43,940,000 and $23,500,000, respectively, in medical malpractice cases.
Please contact us TOLL FREE 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 1-800-WORK-4-YOU (1-800-967-5496). WE CAN EVEN COME TO YOU. There is no attorneys’ fee unless we recover money for you. We can also help with personal injury cases in New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, or Florida. If you have been seriously injured in any of the 50 U.S. states, please call us and we will try to help you with your case.
Other TOLL FREE phone numbers for us are:
1-800-RADIO-LAW, 1-888-WYPADEK, OR 1-800-LAS-LEYES
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Source: http://gothamist.com/2016/06/04/coney_island_hospital_sued_for_misd.php