What You Need to Know About Skin Cancer Misdiagnosis
Here at Gershon, Willoughby, Getz & Smith LLC, we are a team of medical doctors and birth trauma attorneys in Baltimore, MD who want nothing more than to help our clients get the compensation they deserve. Not only does our firm handle cases involving birth injuries and cerebral palsy, but we also represent medical malpractice cases for people suffering from a cancer misdiagnosis, surgical errors, labor malpractice, and many more medical conditions.
One of the most commonly misdiagnosed forms of cancer is skin cancer. To help potential clients who may have suffered due to a skin cancer misdiagnosis, we have compiled a list of reasons for a skin cancer misdiagnosis. If any of the situations below sound familiar, you need to contact us today because you might be a victim of medical malpractice.
Physicians incorrectly diagnose cancer as something markedly less severe
- Sometimes skin cancer is diagnosed as eczema, a simple infection, or another less serious skin irritation. Failure to provide a correct diagnosis gives the cancer time to spread, a higher likelihood of more aggressive treatment, or even death.
Inability to recommend further testing
- Unfortunately, doctors misinterpret the results of diagnostic or pathology reports, thus delaying the treatment of cancer. Most doctors employ pathologists to do biopsy testing because they are less expensive than dermatopathologists. Managed care plans also limit a physician as to where they send a tissue sample for testing.
Unnecessary treatments for non-existent cancer
- Diagnosis of skin cancer goes both ways. Patients can sometimes suffer unnecessary treatments and surgeries for skin cancer they don’t even have. Unnecessary surgeries can happen when specimens are sent for testing, and benign samples cannot be differentiated from malignant unless viewed under high magnification instruments.
It’s important for skin cancer patients to know exactly what type of cancer they have to start appropriate treatment immediately. Although the standard of care varies from case to case, if you’ve experienced a misdiagnosis due to oversight by a hospital or physician, our birth trauma attorneys can help. Gershon, Willoughby, Getz & Smith LLC offers free consultations. Please visit browse our website and fill out a contact form, and we will be in touch shortly.