After experiencing negative health symptoms, many individuals seek medical attention and receive a diagnosis. Many patients who receive an adverse diagnosis, or one they feel doesn’t fit their experience, will seek a second diagnosis, only to receive a different diagnostic judgment.
Getting two different diagnoses for the same symptoms is more common than most patients realize. It doesn’t automatically mean one doctor committed medical malpractice. Reasonable physicians can look at the same set of symptoms and reach different conclusions, especially early in a diagnostic process.
However, a conflicting diagnosis can also be the first sign that medical negligence played a role in the diagnostic process.
Disagreement Alone Isn’t Malpractice
The legal standard for diagnostic malpractice is whether a doctor’s process for reaching a diagnosis fell below what a reasonably competent physician in the same specialty would have done under the same circumstances. Two doctors can examine the same patient, order similar tests, and still reach different conclusions, especially with conditions that evolve over time.
Therefore, a second opinion that differs from an initial diagnosis isn’t automatically medical negligence. It only means that two professionals interpreted the available information differently.
When a Conflicting Diagnosis Points to Malpractice
In some cases, a second opinion reveals that the first doctor missed something a competent physician should have caught.
For example, the first doctor may have failed to order tests that were clearly indicated by the patient’s symptoms, and the second doctor identified the correct diagnosis simply by running the proper tests.
Alternatively, the first doctor may have dismissed or downplayed symptoms that pointed toward a more serious condition.
Or, the first doctor may have relied on an incomplete patient history, medication list, or set of test results that a more thorough evaluation would have caught.
In these situations, the second diagnosis serves as evidence that the first doctor’s process deviated from the standard of care. It can also provide proof that the deviation may have delayed treatment, allowed a condition to worsen, or caused harm that earlier treatment would have prevented.
What to Do When You Get Conflicting Diagnoses
If a delay between an incorrect diagnosis and an accurate diagnosis caused your condition to worsen, that delay may support a malpractice claim. A condition caught and treated immediately may have required minor intervention, while the same condition discovered after a delayed diagnosis, may require more ongoing or invasive treatment.
If you received two different diagnoses for the same condition, you should take the following steps:
- Get the full medical records from both providers, including their notes explaining the reasoning behind each diagnosis
- Ask the second doctor directly what tests or findings led them to a different conclusion than the first provider reached.
- Follow the treatment plan of whichever diagnosis is currently guiding your care
- Keep a written record of the timeline between the first diagnosis, your symptoms in the interim, and the second diagnosis.
If you believe an earlier diagnosis was wrong in a way that caused you harm, an experienced misdiagnosis attorney in Las Cruces can review both sets of records, consult with an independent medical expert, and help you understand whether the first doctor’s error meets the legal standard for a malpractice claim. Call Coates & Johnson for a free consultation to learn more about your legal rights and options.