Can a Hospital Be Sued for a Failure to Diagnose a Stroke?

You may be able to sue a hospital or healthcare provider in Florida if a preventable failure to diagnose a stroke leads to your injury. However, you’ll have to prove that the hospital or one of its employees failed to provide you with the basic standard of care, and that failure resulted in your stroke.

Stroke cases are especially sensitive to delays, as doctors have a limited opportunity to restore blood flow or take other steps that can reduce brain damage. If you arrived at a hospital with recognizable stroke symptoms but did not receive adequate care, an attorney could help you sue the hospital or any other party who was ultimately at fault.

When Can a Missed Stroke Diagnosis Be Medical Malpractice?

A missed stroke diagnosis can amount to medical malpractice if a healthcare provider failed to act as a reasonably careful provider would have under similar circumstances and that failure caused additional harm.

Common failures that may contribute to a missed stroke diagnosis include:

• Failing to recognize stroke symptoms: Providers may overlook facial drooping, weakness on one side, difficulty speaking, confusion, vision problems, loss of coordination, or a sudden severe headache.
• Attributing symptoms to another condition: A provider may incorrectly blame stroke symptoms on other issues, like intoxication or low blood sugar.
• Delaying diagnostic imaging: CT scans and other imaging can help doctors determine what type of stroke occurred and guide how you are treated.
• Failing to perform a proper neurological evaluation: An incomplete examination can cause providers to miss signs like speech changes or coordination problems that might point to a stroke.
• Failing to respond to worsening symptoms: Hospital staff may initially suspect another condition but fail to reconsider that diagnosis as your neurological symptoms progress.
• Poor communication: Breakdowns among nurses, emergency physicians, radiologists, neurologists, and other providers can delay diagnosis and treatment.

Ultimately, your case comes down to whether or not the steps your medical team took were reasonable given the information and time they had. Our team can work with medical experts to determine whether your symptoms should have prompted faster testing or treatment.

Who Can Be Held Responsible for Failing to Diagnose a Stroke?

Doctors, nurses, radiologists, medical groups, and hospitals could all potentially be held responsible for a delayed stroke diagnosis. An investigation must identify exactly where the breakdown occurred and may highlight multiple parties who share fault for your condition.

Whether or not the hospital itself can be held responsible depends on the circumstances. Hospitals could be on the hook for damages for employee negligence, or the facility and its owners could be liable because of policy or staffing issues that are ultimately to blame.

How Do You Prove That a Delayed Stroke Diagnosis Caused Your Injuries?

You generally need medical evidence showing that the diagnostic delay caused or worsened your injuries. It is not enough to show that a doctor should have diagnosed the stroke sooner if the delay did not affect the outcome, as even the best-trained medical professionals aren’t expected to be perfect.

The medical timeline often becomes one of the most important parts of the case. Your attorney may examine when symptoms began, when you arrived at the hospital, what symptoms staff documented, when a physician examined you, when imaging was ordered, when the hospital received the results, and when treatment started.

Hospital records are also frequently central to these claims. One of the major benefits of hiring an attorney to handle your malpractice claim is that they can identify the records that are important in your case.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is every missed stroke diagnosis malpractice?

No. A missed diagnosis generally becomes malpractice only if the provider failed to meet the applicable standard of care and that failure caused additional harm.

Can you sue if doctors diagnosed your stroke too late for treatment?

Potentially. You may have a claim if negligent delays caused you to miss an appropriate treatment opportunity and worsened your outcome.

Can a hospital be liable for an emergency room doctor’s mistake?

It’s possible for a hospital to be liable for a mistake made by an emergency room doctor. This is true when the doctor is an employee, or when issues like understaffing contributed to the misdiagnosis.

What evidence can prove a missed stroke diagnosis?

Medical records, imaging, test results, ambulance records, medication records, electronic timestamps, and expert medical opinions can help establish whether providers should have diagnosed the stroke sooner.

How long do you have to file a stroke malpractice lawsuit in Florida?

Florida law generally gives you two years to file a stroke malpractice lawsuit, but that time period might not start counting down until you discover the error. You should also be aware of a firm four-year deadline known as the statute of repose.

How Can Our Firm Help With a Failure to Diagnose a Stroke Claim?

A missed stroke diagnosis case requires more than proof that the hospital made a mistake. You also need evidence showing what providers should have done, how quickly they should have acted, and whether appropriate treatment could have prevented some of your injuries. Our medical malpractice attorneys can obtain your complete medical records, reconstruct the treatment timeline, consult the appropriate experts, negotiate with insurance companies, and take your case to trial if necessary.

Talk to Fogg Law Group Today

If you are suffering from a stroke due to inadequate medical care, you have every right to be upset. You also have the right to seek compensation through the legal system with the help of Fogg Law Group. Contact us today for a free consultation to discuss how we can help.