• 20
  • January
    2012

Rather than acknowledge that they have no idea what is wrong with you, a doctor will instead reach for a prescription pad and write out a prescription that may treat the symptom but do nothing to cure the illness. The prescriptions can be expensive and unnecessary. But of greater concern is that a misdiagnosis, delayed diagnosis or failure to diagnose can ultimately only lead to more physical damage.

A woman suffering from migraines for more than 3-years was continually prescribed medications to take the pain away. Though she had told her various physicians about a rare lung condition, most of the doctors dismissed the idea that the migraines were in any way connected with her difficulties in breathing. She had found that a homemade remedy to combat the headaches was actually more effective than the pain medications that she was prescribed. However, no prescription that she was given during the 3-year period resulted in bringing the headaches to an end.

Though mistakes such as these happen frequently, hospitals cannot be excused for failing to treat the disease. Medical technology as advanced to the stage that such errors generally do not happen without some medical professional failing to fulfill their duty or taking their responsibilities too lightly. Legal counsel experienced in the area of medical malpractice can often come to the bottom of what went wrong concerning such situations and hold the responsible parties liable.

Often misdiagnosis or failure to diagnose comes about simply because doctors and other medical providers fail to listen to their patients. Though a misdiagnosis can sometimes be later corrected, in other instances it can lead to a waste of precious time as the illness becomes worse and sometimes untreatable.

In the above situation, the woman has now been supplied with portable oxygen tank. She was also found to have hypopnea (too little oxygen while one sleeps) and this was also a cause of her headaches. She was then further supplied with a device that supplies oxygen while she sleeps, and she has rarely suffered from headaches since that time.

Source: Salem News, "What Your Doctor Doesn't Know Could Hurt You or Someone You Love," by Toni Samanie, Jan. 5, 2012