When breast cancer has been misdiagnosed or not diagnosed when it should have been, it’s important to know who may be liable. Primary care physicians, OB/GYNs, radiologists and others may have been involved in the examination, but how can you tell who is really liable?

To answer that question, we asked breast cancer misdiagnosis attorney Dan Hodes. According to Hodes, “Where there is a failure to follow up on a mass on an imaging study, either the primary care physician or the OB/GYN who’s doing that examination might be liable. In a situation where someone fails to appreciate an area of suspicion on an imaging study, the radiologist might be liable. In a situation where the mass wasn’t properly diagnosed microscopically, the pathologist might be liable and lastly, a surgeon or radiologist performing the biopsy might also be liable.”

Does your case have legal merit?

Timing in a breast cancer misdiagnosis case can be difficult to pinpoint. So, how do you really know if your case has legal merit? Again, we posed that question to Dan Hodes, who replied, “If a woman has undergone regular breast examinations and mammograms, and is later diagnosed with breast cancer, she should certainly consider investigating whether the cancer was missed – particularly is she has a history of a persisting lump. Obtaining copies of old records and original breast imaging studies would be the appropriate first step. If a biopsy had been performed in the past, then results of those biopsy slides should be obtained.”

Determining the responsible party (ies) in a breast cancer misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis case can be a difficult process that should be left to an attorney whose practice focuses in this area of law. To contact an attorney near you, click here.