Failure to Diagnose Tongue Cancer

Failure to diagnose cancer occurs more often than doctors would have people believe. A failure to diagnose tongue cancer or oral cancer can have serious repercussions for a patient. If you were harmed by your physician’s failure to diagnose tongue cancer, you should discuss your potential claim with a seasoned Syracuse medical malpractice lawyer. At DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys we’ve advocated for patients harmed by their doctors in Syracuse and across Upstate New York for decades.

Symptoms of tongue cancer can include a persistent sore throat, pain and burning in the mouth, pain when swallowing, lumps on the tongue that don’t go away, numbness that doesn’t go away, and red or white patches that stay on the tongue over time. If you go in to see your doctor with these symptoms, it may be appropriate for him or her to conduct a differential diagnosis. A general practitioner or oncologist’s failure to diagnose tongue cancer, whether because he failed to include tongue cancer as a potential diagnosis, failed to conduct adequate testing for tongue cancer, or another reason, may result in significant harm.

Not every failure to diagnose tongue cancer constitutes medical malpractice. To prove medical malpractice, our lawyers will need to prove by a preponderance of the evidence you were owed a professional standard of care, your physician or other provider failed to acting according to that standard, and thereby caused you injuries.

The professional standard of care can vary depending on the geographical region and specialty of the provider in question. The circumstances surrounding the failure to diagnose will also affect whether we can show there was a breach. A provider may breach the professional standard of care in various ways, depending on his or her specialty:

• A general practitioner might breach the duty by failing to order tests to detect cancer early enough or at all though there are symptoms.
• A radiologist may misread imaging of the tongue.
• A general practitioner or oncologist may fail to listen to a patient’s complaints or fail to take a history.
• A doctor may believe that cancer symptoms are symptoms of another condition, thereby delaying treatment for the cancer, and allowing the cancer to progress.

It's unlikely we’ll be able to show a failure to diagnose if evidence does not point to cancer in the course of the doctor’s care of the patient.

Many defendants depend on the argument that a plaintiff’s cancer would have progressed and caused harm regardless of their actions. It is critical that we build the case that your provider’s actions were a contributing or causal factor in the harm you suffered due to tongue cancer. Generally, the earlier tongue cancer is diagnosed the greater the odds of your survival or recovery—failure to diagnose tongue cancer can lead to death.

In most cases, when our attorneys can establish a health care provider’s liability, we can recover compensatory damages. These are damages that are meant to put you back in the position you would have been in had your tongue cancer been caught in a timely fashion. They can include wage loss, replacement services, medical bills, pain and suffering, loss of consortium, and loss of enjoyment.

If your loved one died due to a doctor’s failure to diagnose tongue cancer, we may have grounds to pursue a wrongful death lawsuit for damages on your behalf. These damages may include funeral and burial expenses, along with a host of compensation for other losses.

If you were injured or a loved one was killed due to a failure to diagnose tongue cancer, you should call DeFrancisco & Falgiatano Personal Injury Attorneys. We have more than 30 years of experience seeking best results for patients in Canandaigua, Lowville, Albany, Oneida, Auburn, Buffalo, Utica, Rochester, Watertown, Herkimer, Oswego, Lyons, Wampsville, Ithaca, Cooperstown, Elmira, Binghamton, and all of Upstate New York. For a free consultation, complete our online form or call us at 833-200-2000.