Missed diabetes diagnosis
Being diagnosed with diabetes can be overwhelming, requiring significant adjustments as you navigate its impact on your daily life. It’s natural to feel concerned, and it may take time to understand your diagnosis fully.
The situation becomes even more challenging if your diabetes is misdiagnosed or not promptly diagnosed by medical professionals. In such cases, you may be entitled to make a medical negligence claim to cover your care costs and any life-altering effects caused by the delayed or incorrect diagnosis.
Our team of expert medical negligence solicitors is here to support you. We understand you may have many questions about making a claim, and we’re always available to provide the answers and guidance you need.
What is a missed diabetes diagnosis?
Missed, delayed, or misdiagnosis of diabetes is surprisingly common. A missed diabetes diagnosis means your diabetes should have been spotted and diagnosed at an earlier stage than it was.
To bring a medical negligence claim, you need to be able to show that the missed diagnosis amounted to medical negligence by a medical professional.
Unfortunately, any health professional can miss a diabetes diagnosis as several very common conditions display some of the same symptoms as diabetes. These conditions include:
- Sinus infections
- Viral infections
- The flu
- Asthma
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Cushings Disease
- Haemochromatosis
- Pancreatitis
When making a claim for medical negligence, we will look at two main areas:
- Negligence - the doctor or health professional would have diagnosed you with diabetes earlier if they had exercised reasonable care and skill
- Harm -you have suffered harm because of the missed diabetes diagnosis
What are the complications of a late or missed diabetes diagnosis?
The complications of a missed diabetes diagnosis depend on the extent of the delay and its impact on you and your health. For example, a month's delay may not affect your diabetic health if your diabetes is still caught relatively early. For another patient, a month's delay in a diabetes diagnosis could result in life-altering consequences.
Some of the known complications of a late or missed diabetes diagnosis are:
- Diabetic neuropathy or nerve damage. This normally affects the legs and feet of a diabetic patient
- Diabetic foot caused by peripheral arterial disease
- Diabetic retinopathy causes blurred vision and sight loss by high blood sugar levels damaging the retina
- Amputation due to leg ulceration, poor healing, artery and circulation damage or osteomyelitis
- Heart attack and strokes due to the increased risk of clot formation and coronary artery disease
- Kidney disease and renal failure where the delay in diabetes diagnosis left the condition untreated
- Increased risk of miscarriage or stillbirth if you are pregnant with missed gestational diabetes or other types of diabetes
Time limits for bringing a claim
There is a three-year time limit for bringing a medical negligence claim. The limitation period runs from the date of diagnosis to when you realised you had a potential medical negligence claim. These two dates may be different as you may not have linked an earlier heart attack or stroke to your missed diabetes diagnosis until a later medical appointment.
If you are unsure if you are within the limitation period, your best option is to speak to one of our friendly medical negligence solicitors, who can talk you through the steps to make a no-win, no-fee medical negligence claim.
Compensation claims for missed diabetes diagnosis
The amount you may receive in compensation will vary depending on the impact of the late diagnosis on you and your health. In every claim, we carefully examine the impact of medical negligence and the pain and suffering you have experienced.
Any medical negligence solicitor will tell you that no amount of money truly compensates you, as we cannot put you back in the position you would have been in if the health professionals had diagnosed your diabetes promptly. However, compensation for your pain and suffering, reimbursement of money spent by you, and compensation for future expenses and losses will help you and your family by providing some financial help when you need it.
We aim to relieve the burden of making a claim, allowing you and your family to focus fully on your recovery moving forward.
We will assess your claim, investigate it, and then seek expert reports to help us negotiate compensation on your behalf.
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Our lawyers are more than happy to discuss your claim over the phone at a time and date that is convenient for you.