Being wrong is not, by itself, negligence. Two doctors can reach different conclusions from the same presentation and both be practicing competently. What the law asks is different: did this provider do what a competent provider would have done, and did the failure cause harm that would otherwise have been avoided.
That second half defeats more claims than the first. A cancer diagnosed three months late is only actionable if those three months changed the outcome, and proving that takes a physician who will say so on the record.
What turns a wrong diagnosis into a claim
Usually one of these failures, documented in the record:
- A symptom reported repeatedly and never investigated. The clearest pattern we see: three or four visits for the same complaint, each treated as something minor.
- A test ordered and never followed up, or a result that came back abnormal and was never actioned.
- The wrong test, or no test at all, where the presentation called for one.
- Failure to refer to a specialist when the picture was outside the provider's scope.
- Imaging misread, which is handled with our radiology error work.
- Premature closure, where an early assumption fixed the diagnosis and later contradicting signs were fitted to it.
The conditions most often missed
- Cancer, where delay changes the stage at diagnosis and therefore the treatment and the prognosis
- Heart attack, particularly in women and younger patients whose presentation does not match the textbook
- Stroke, where the treatment window is measured in hours
- Sepsis, which moves faster than almost anything else and is frequently sent home as a virus
- Pulmonary embolism, often attributed to anxiety or a muscular strain
- Cauda equina syndrome, where the window to operate is short and the consequences of missing it are permanent. See cauda equina claims.
- Infections, including necrotizing and post-surgical infections
Emergency departments produce a disproportionate share of these, which is why they have their own place in our medical malpractice work.
How a misdiagnosis claim is proven
- The complete record, including nursing notes, triage documentation, imaging, labs and the billing record, which frequently shows what was ordered and when better than the narrative does.
- A qualifying expert review. Maryland requires a certificate from a qualified expert stating that the care departed from the standard and caused the injury, and the claim is filed with the state health care dispute office before it proceeds in court.
- Causation evidence, which is the hard part: what would have happened with a timely diagnosis, and how the delay changed it.
- Damages, documented across treatment that would not otherwise have been needed, lost income, and the difference in prognosis.
The deadline runs from discovery, sometimes
Maryland malpractice claims generally run five years from the injury or three years from when the injury was discovered, whichever comes first. Misdiagnosis is the classic case where those two dates differ, because the harm often becomes apparent long after the visit that caused it.
Because the discovery date is so often disputed, do not decide for yourself that it is too late. Ask us to check the dates.
