For weeks, you have been experiencing severe abdominal pain and gastrointestinal distress. You visit your doctor and describe your symptoms in detail but are sent home with a diagnosis of mild indigestion and told to take antacids. The pain continued to worsen. You return to your doctor multiple times, pleading for help, but are repeatedly dismissed, ignored, and sent away without proper diagnostic testing or treatment. By the time your condition is finally diagnosed correctly, it has progressed to a life-threatening stage requiring emergency surgery.
This heartbreaking situation may sound like an outlier, but medical neglect in the form of dismissing patients’ pain and symptoms is something our Cleveland medical malpractice lawyers can attest happens too frequently. When doctors fail to take patients’ concerns seriously, order appropriate tests and scans, and provide necessary treatment, devastating harm can occur.
So, what do you do when your doctor ignores your pain? You can hold a doctor liable for ignoring your pain and not treating your condition properly by filing a medical malpractice lawsuit.
What Constitutes Medical Malpractice for Failure to Treat Pain and Symptoms?
Medical malpractice occurs when a doctor fails to provide treatment that meets the accepted standard of care in the medical community, and as a result, the patient suffers harm. Key elements that must be proven are:
- A doctor-patient relationship existed
- The doctor was negligent and failed to provide treatment meeting the standard of care
- This negligence caused actual harm and damages to the patient
In the context of dismissing a patient’s pain, some examples of medical neglect may include:
- Not taking a patient’s report of pain seriously
- Not asking sufficient questions or obtaining a thorough patient history
- Jumping to conclusions and quickly diagnosing a minor issue without proper assessment
- Failing to order diagnostic tests and scans to identify the underlying cause
- Declining to refer the patient to specialists
- Failing to follow up and monitor the patient’s condition over time
- Not providing medication or other interventions to control pain in the meantime
Any of these negligent actions that allow a patient’s condition to progress dangerously could potentially constitute medical malpractice. A doctor cannot simply wave off a patient’s reports of pain, no matter how mild or severe. All pain needs to be evaluated and treated with due care.
The Harm of Untreated Pain and Worsened Medical Conditions
When a doctor neglects a patient’s symptoms and fails to treat their pain and underlying condition properly, it causes the patient to endure needless suffering. Unmanaged pain is not only agonizing, it is traumatic. The psychological impact of having your pain dismissed and being sent away to suffer can be devastating.
Even worse, pain is often a signal of a serious health problem that needs intervention. Ignoring that warning siren allows the condition to spiral out of control, progressing from bad to worse to potentially life-threatening. Patients can end up with chronic debilitating injuries, permanent disabilities, vital organ damage, and deadly infections, cancers, and systemic illnesses that may have been prevented with early treatment.
Know The Signs Your Doctor May Be Neglecting Your Pain
How can you tell if your doctor is not taking your pain seriously and is neglecting to properly diagnose and treat your condition? Here are some warning signs to watch for:
- Your doctor spends little time listening to you as you explain your symptoms
- Your doctor immediately dismisses your pain as minor without proper assessment
- Your doctor declines to perform or order further examination or testing
- Your doctor attributes your pain to stress, hormones, aging, or other generalizations
- Your doctor prescribes only mild over-the-counter pain relievers
- Your doctor wants to “wait and see” if your pain resolves on its own
- Your doctor does not provide a treatment plan to control your pain
- Your doctor does not have you return for follow-up to see if interventions are working
If you notice these red flags, trust your instincts. You know your body and you know when something is really wrong. Pain is your body’s alarm system. Do not allow a doctor to ignore that alarm. Persist in demanding proper care, even if it means seeking a second opinion or changing providers altogether.
What To Do When Your Doctor Ignores Your Pain
In the most heartbreaking cases, we see patients suffer permanent, life-changing harm because doctors neglected their pain and failed to treat serious conditions promptly. If you experienced medical neglect, you may have grounds for a lawsuit to hold the doctor accountable and recover compensation for the damages you suffered.
To find out if you have a viable medical malpractice case, the first step is to consult with an experienced medical malpractice attorney. Choose a lawyer who has a track record of successful results in suing doctors and hospitals for negligence. In your initial case evaluation, the lawyer will listen to your story, ask questions to gather pertinent facts, evaluate the merits and challenges of your potential case, and advise you of your legal rights and options.
Why It’s Important to Hold Doctors Accountable for Ignoring Patients’ Pain
At the end of the day, we rely on medical professionals to take our pain seriously, believe us when we say something is wrong, and take swift action to properly diagnose and treat our conditions.
When doctors neglect this duty, patients tragically fall through the cracks and endure unimaginable suffering.
This is why it is so crucial to hold doctors legally accountable when they commit this type of medical malpractice. Doctors need to feel the weight of responsibility to handle every case and every patient’s report of pain with great care and urgency. When doctors face real repercussions like getting sued and having to pay settlements for their negligence, it motivates more attentive and conscientious medical care.
On an individual level, filing a medical malpractice lawsuit allows patients to have their voices heard, validate their experiences, and feel a measure of justice. While legal action cannot reverse the harm that was done, it can provide the financial recovery patients desperately need to pay for medical bills, ongoing care, lost income, and their pain and suffering.
Seek Legal Help
If your doctor dismisses your pain and fails to properly diagnose and treat your condition, you have the right to hold them accountable for medical neglect. You deserve to be taken seriously, to have your health protected, and to receive the maximum compensation when medical professionals’ negligence causes you harm. Do not suffer in silence. Contact Tittle & Perlmuter to learn your rights and take legal action.
