Tongue cancer, while rare, often causes significant concerns, like sores that do not heal, thickening in the tongue, pain, and difficulty swallowing. If tongue cancer is localized, the survival rate is high, but if it spreads, patient outcomes worsen, making early detection critical for successful treatment. It is common, however, for doctors to mistake symptoms of tongue cancer for other less serious conditions and subsequently neglect to identify the cancer until it has metastasized. If you were wounded by a doctor’s inept failure to diagnose tongue cancer, you should speak to an attorney about your options. The Baltimore medical malpractice attorneys of Arfaa Law Group can evaluate your losses and aid you in seeking the best legal result possible.
Injuries Brought About by the Failure to Diagnose Tongue CancerTongue cancer, typically a form of squamous cell carcinoma, can present with subtle symptoms such as persistent sores, difficulty swallowing, or changes in speech, which may be overlooked or misinterpreted by healthcare providers. Early detection is vital for effective treatment, which often involves surgical removal of the tumor, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy.
When a diagnosis is delayed, cancer can progress to more advanced stages, necessitating more aggressive and disfiguring treatments and reducing the likelihood of successful outcomes. Such delays can be caused by a doctor’s failure to conduct thorough oral examinations, ignoring patient complaints, or not ordering appropriate diagnostic tests such as biopsies or imaging studies. The impact a physician’s failure to diagnose tongue cancer has on patients includes not only the physical harm caused by such errors but also the emotional and financial burdens that typically arise as well.
Liability for the Failure to Diagnose Tongue CancerFailure to diagnose tongue cancer can lead to severe and often irreversible health outcomes, including extensive injuries to the mouth and metastasis, which significantly complicates treatment. Accordingly, people injured by such errors will frequently seek to recover some of their losses by pursuing damages from the responsible parties in medical malpractice lawsuits.
Typically, a plaintiff in a medical malpractice case will assert that the defendant was negligent. In Maryland, in order to establish the negligence of a defendant doctor, the plaintiff must first show that the defendant owed them a duty. The duty a doctor owes a patient is to comply with the standard of care, which is defined by what treatment a reasonable professional who works in the same practice area as the defendant would provide in a similar situation. Next, the plaintiff has to prove that the defendant breached the duty in some way.
The plaintiff then must prove that they sustained calculable losses, and must demonstrate causation, which means that they have to show that the defendant’s breach of the standard of care directly led to their harm. Usually, a plaintiff in a medical malpractice case will need an expert to explain the standard of care and the ways in which the defendant failed to uphold the standard to the judge or jury. Expert testimony is often needed to connect the defendant’s breach and the plaintiff’s losses as well.
A plaintiff who successfully proves a defendant’s fault can often recover damages for their economic and non-economic losses. Economic losses generally include the cost of any necessary medical treatment, out-of-pocket expenses, and lost wages, while non-economic damages encompass suffering, pain, and emotional trauma.
Meet With an Experienced Baltimore AttorneyMissed and delayed tongue cancer diagnoses typically result in substantial losses, and the doctors responsible for such oversights should be held accountable. If you experienced harm due to a doctor’s failure to diagnose tongue cancer, it is smart to meet with an attorney to assess what claims you may be able to pursue. The experienced Baltimore medical malpractice lawyers of Arfaa Law Group know what it takes to prevail against negligent physicians, and if you hire us, we will gather the evidence needed to give you a good chance of obtaining an outcome in your favor. Our office is located in Baltimore, and we frequently represent people hurt by negligent doctors in medical malpractice lawsuits throughout the city. You can reach us at 410-889-1850 or through our online form to arrange a meeting.