Failure to Diagnose Stroke Lawyers
Orlando, Florida
The failure to diagnose a stroke can be an extremely serious problem, especially in the early minutes of an occurring stroke, because if your stroke is misdiagnosed (i.e. left untreated or treated improperly) you or your loved one may suffer a stroke for a longer amount of time which can cause more serious health consequences. And that doesn't even take into account the risk of dying from a stroke.
According to the American Stroke Association (a division of American Heart Association) someone in the United States suffers a stroke, on average, every 45 seconds. With about 500,000 of these people experiencing a new stroke (as opposed to a recurrent one). That means that your doctor needs to act fast and know how to respond properly.
When you are with the doctor trying to figure out what is wrong with you or your loved one, look for the following symptoms:
- Sudden numbness or weakness of the face, arm or leg, especially on one side of the body,
- Sudden confusion,
- Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes,
- Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance or coordination,
- Sudden, severe headache with no known cause, and/or
- Trouble speaking or understanding.
If any of these symptoms are present, your physician should take steps to assess you further to determine if you possess certain risk factors for stroke. Risk factors for stroke include the following.
- Atrial fibrillation (heart rhythm disorder)
- Carotid or other artery disease (people with peripheral artery disease have a higher risk of carotid artery disease, which raises their risk of stroke. Peripheral artery disease is the narrowing of blood vessels carrying blood to leg and arm muscles. It's caused by fatty buildups of plaque in artery walls.)
- Certain blood disorders
- Diabetes mellitus
- Excessive alcohol consumption
- Gender (stroke is more common in men than in women)
- Heredity (family history) and race (your stroke risk is greater if a parent, grandparent, sister, or brother has had a stroke. African Americans have a much higher risk of death from a stroke than Caucasians do. This is partly because blacks have higher risks of high blood pressure, diabetes, and obesity.)
- High blood cholesterol
- High blood pressure
- Increasing age
- Other heart disease
- Physical inactivity and obesity
- Prior stroke or heart attack
- Sickle cell disease (also called sickle cell anemia)
- Some illegal drug usage (intravenous drug abuse or cocaine use)
- Tobacco use
- Transient Ischemic Attacks (TIAs)
Your doctor should especially pay attention if you have ever suffered TIAs. These are ministrokes or "warning strokes." They have similar symptoms to stroke but you sustain no permanent damage. That's why it is very important to recognize and treat TIAs immediately. If you get treatment for these quickly, you can reduce your risk of a major stroke.
If your doctor sees you with stroke symptoms but fails to investigate your possible risk factors for stroke, or if your physician fails to perform tests to rule out a stroke, these could be signs of medical malpractice.
If you or a loved one suffered a stroke and your physician failed to diagnose the stroke in Orlando, or anywhere in Florida, contact Colling Gilbert Wright & Carter today. Our experienced Florida medical malpractice attorneys will evaluate your failure to diagnose a stroke claim for free and represent you on a contingent fee basis, which means you don't have to pay any attorneys' fees until we recover damages on your claim.
3 5 2 - 3 4 7 6
