Misdiagnosis of Cancer

Cancer remains one of the leading causes of death globally. According to cancer research, there are approximately 367,000 new cancer cases in the UK each year and every two minutes someone is diagnosed with cancer. Cancer can drastically alter an individual’s life and its effects are devastating to all parties involved. Around half of people diagnosed with cancer survive their disease for ten years or more, the key to survival is early detection. If there is a delay in diagnosing your condition, or if you have received a misdiagnosis, you may be entitled to claim for compensation under medical negligence.

 

Commonly misdiagnosed cancers

Mistakes are often made when giving a cancer diagnosis as there is a wide range of different forms of cancer that resemble symptoms of other illnesses. The most misdiagnosed forms of cancer include:

• Lung cancer - symptoms tend to be shortness of breath and coughing, which is often linked to other respiratory diseases such as asthma and pneumonia. This makes it difficult for healthcare professionals to be certain of when it is cancer.
• Pancreatic cancer - Symptoms are comparable to other illnesses such as irritable bowel syndrome, gallstones or pancreatitis.
• Breast cancer - Leading cause of cancer in women. Those experiencing breast inflammation or find lumps are often misdiagnosed if thought to be benign.
• Colorectal cancer - Covers cancer occurring in the lower intestine and bowel and their symptoms are similar to conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, haemorrhoids and ulcerative colitis.

 

How we can help

Our legal team would appoint a consultant oncologist to assist them in creating a claim. Please note we make no commission from these referrals but do need clients to open a case so that we can appoint them to assist. These consultant oncologists are privately contracted by us (and therefore their cost would be classed as a disbursement). The ultimate aim would be to get the trust to admit liability and confirm that your current condition has been left damaged in some way, admit the error and agree to a series of interim payments followed by a final settlement. The medical consultants will assess the entire situation. To address the claim element for mental trauma then we would suggest an additional report from our psychological team.

 

The claim will consider two types of damages:

• General damages- this compensates the victim for the pain and suffering endured, and for the loss of enjoyment of life as a result of the negligent act.
• Special damages- this compensates the victim for any personal costs incurred as a result of the negligent act. It can also cover any additional costs required in the future. This includes:
  • Costs of medication and treatment;
  • Loss of income and earnings; and the
  • Cost of additional medical apparatus.

 

To gain our assistance you need to open a case, this is done by taking advantage of our free consultation service, activated by the link at the top of the page, should you wish to start a case the caseworker will send you the suitable payment link. Please note your caseworker can only give generic advice, their role is to prepare your details for handling by our legal team and medical consultant and to act as your point of contact, they will also issue you with your Password and PIN, these will be needed to log onto your client dashboard. From your dashboard you will be able to manage and view every aspect of your case, upload documents, images, files etc.