About stroke misdiagnosis claims
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If the clinician didn't provide the care the situation required, missing a stroke may amount to malpractice. Additional injury must have resulted from that failure. A wrong diagnosis alone doesn't establish malpractice. What the emergency room knew then is relevant. Whether earlier treatment could have reduced later injury needs examination. What the emergency room knew must inform the review's examination of that possibility.
1.Something went wrong
Write down dates and names while they're fresh.
2.Get your records
Ask for your full chart and test results.
3.Free case review
A lawyer looks at what happened, free.
4.Medical opinion
A doctor checks whether the care fell short.
5.Start the claim in time
Your lawyer starts the claim before the deadline.
6.Settlement or trial
Many claims settle. Some go to a judge or jury.
What a stroke does to the brain
A stroke interrupts the normal flow of blood to the brain. Brain tissue may suffer permanent injury. The effects on a person depend on where in the brain the injury occurs. Speaking may become difficult. Moving one side of the body may be difficult, too. A severe stroke can cause death.
The Failure to Diagnose Stroke page on MedMalNJ.com describes two main types of stroke. A blood clot blocking a vessel that supplies the brain causes an ischemic stroke. Brain cells begin to die when oxygen and nutrients fall short. When a vessel bursts, the resulting stroke is hemorrhagic. Bleeding inside the brain creates pressure and causes injury.
That difference affects the treatment. Early recognition of an ischemic stroke may give clinicians a chance to try restoring blood flow to threatened brain tissue. For a hemorrhagic stroke, clinicians may need to stop the bleeding and address pressure building inside the brain. A legal review must take those differences in stroke type into account.
Warning signs aren't always dramatic
FAST gives you a way to remember recognizable warning signs. Face drooping and arm weakness are part of FAST, as is speech difficulty. At the final step, it's time to call emergency services. Look for an uneven smile. When someone tries to raise both arms, watch for one drifting downward; that may be another clue.
You may hear slurred speech. Someone may struggle to understand another person, or find they can't speak at all. MedMalNJ.com describes warning signs outside that familiar pattern, too.
- Someone may suddenly become confused or have trouble understanding.
- Suddenly, someone may have trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
- Someone may feel dizzy or struggle to walk, with poor balance or coordination.
- Without a known cause, a severe headache may start suddenly.
You might miss the symptoms. Clear weakness may catch your attention when brief confusion or slight dizziness doesn't. With these subtler symptoms, a stroke can be overlooked, MedMalNJ.com explains.
Symptoms that disappear still matter
Symptoms can appear and then disappear during transient ischemic attacks, or TIAs. MedMalNJ.com describes these episodes. After these episodes, the risk of a completed stroke remains substantial. MedMalNJ.com also describes a sentinel bleed. This small bleed can precede a more serious rupture of a vessel. Before a larger stroke occurs, clinicians may be able to treat the warning bleed if they recognize it.
Even if the person seems better now, don't dismiss what happened. Even symptoms that ended before the examination belong in your account of what you saw to the treating clinician.
How a stroke gets mistaken for something else
MedMalNJ.com describes how stroke symptoms may look like migraine or epilepsy; an inner ear disorder can resemble them, too. An ear problem may get the blame for dizziness. A clinician may label the headache a migraine before giving enough thought to whether it's a stroke.
MedMalNJ.com says clinicians may be less likely to suspect stroke in younger patients or women. People without hypertension or atrial fibrillation, both traditional risk factors, may draw less suspicion, too. Negligence isn't established by that fact alone. The patient's actual symptoms need examination. The patient's symptoms shouldn't be overshadowed by assumptions about the people who usually have strokes.
Imaging isn't always where trouble begins. A clinician who hasn't considered stroke may never order diagnostic imaging. MedMalNJ.com explains that this omission can cost time. What led to the initial diagnosis needs examination during the review. Did the clinician reconsider the diagnosis when symptoms continued or began to change? The review should examine that question.
For the broader practice area, see our Emergency Room Errors page. You can read it for concerns about an emergency department visit other than a missed stroke. This page focuses on injury attributed to delayed stroke recognition. Other emergency room errors are outside that focus.
When a missed diagnosis may be malpractice
A serious outcome alone doesn't prove that the care was negligent. The question is whether substandard care caused additional injury. A legal review must examine that connection. The harm that followed also belongs in the review. For your situation, ask a lawyer in your state or province how these requirements apply to what happened.
The standard of care
The patient's symptoms guide the first question: what care did they call for? Look at the symptoms reported on arrival. The chart also matters, including entries recording weakness or changes in speech. When stroke wasn't considered, the review must look at the clinician's reasons for choosing a different diagnosis.
What could the clinician have known at that point? That's the focus. The later stroke diagnosis gives reason to examine what happened at the earlier visit. An earlier failure to meet the standard isn't automatically proven by the later stroke diagnosis.
Causation: what difference did the delay make?
For families, answering this question is often the hardest part. Even with appropriate care, a stroke can cause major injury. The claim must address whether missing the diagnosis made the patient's injury worse. The claim can't treat every effect of the stroke as an injury caused by negligence.
Brain damage may spread if stroke recognition is delayed, MedMalNJ.com explains. For an individual patient, that possibility isn't enough to show what actually happened. The review must examine the stroke's type and timing. Earlier recognition might have allowed treatment that reduced the patient's injury; the review must examine that possibility. The review needs to address it directly.
Harm after the missed stroke
Paralysis or muscle weakness may remain after a person has a stroke. MedMalNJ.com also lists problems with memory and attention. The site describes difficulty speaking, as well as trouble with reading or writing. A stroke may also be followed by depression or anxiety. Personality can change, too.
The person's family may notice these changes as they go about daily life. The person may no longer be able to work. The independence they had before may also be lost. Your description needs accuracy. For the legal review, the question is which effects came from the stroke and which additional injuries delayed care caused. The stroke itself caused some of those changes.
Start with the first symptoms
Write down what you remember. For each event, include the time as closely as you can remember it. Include symptoms even if they disappeared. Mark a time as an estimate if you're unsure of it. Don't present it as exact.
Gather the records around the missed diagnosis
Ask for copies of any available imaging reports and the emergency room chart. Don't discard the discharge instructions. Ask the lawyer which additional records could help explain the initial diagnosis, so you know what to request.
Connect the first visit to the later diagnosis
Write down the time of stroke recognition. Describe the treatment the patient received after that. Note whether the patient stayed in the hospital. A return after discharge belongs in your account, too, if it happened. Make clear what's from your memory and what's from the chart.
Describe the effects without guessing at their cause
Describe any independence the person lost after the stroke. Include trouble walking, if that became difficult. A review may need to examine whether delayed diagnosis contributed to those changes. The lawyer can explain how a medical review would examine that possible connection; ask about it.
Deadlines depend on where the care occurred
Your state or province sets the applicable statute of limitations deadline. Another stroke misdiagnosis claim may have a different filing period. Don't use it to judge yours. The filing clock doesn't necessarily start when a family first suspects that someone made a mistake. A different point may start the clock.
Our state pages or Canada pages can help you start reading about the rules where you live. Ask a lawyer there about your deadline. Also ask which event sets your case's filing clock running. You'll need more than this page to determine your filing deadline.
What to do next
Medical care comes first. If warning signs return or you notice new ones, call emergency services. A malpractice review isn't a reason to delay addressing ongoing medical concerns after a stroke. Get in touch with your treating team.
When you speak with the lawyer, use your timeline to guide the conversation. Start with the symptoms you had and the diagnosis you were given. Then give the time the stroke was recognized. Even if you're unsure about the care, you can ask for a review. You don't have to decide the care was negligent before requesting a review.
- Identify chart entries that support your concern about a missed stroke. Ask the lawyer. Bring up chart entries that weaken your concern, too, when you speak with the lawyer.
- Discuss whether treatment might have changed with an earlier stroke diagnosis. Ask the lawyer how they'd look into that possibility.
- Discuss any injury you believe grew worse while the stroke diagnosis was delayed.
- Ask the lawyer which state or provincial rules apply to you. The filing deadline belongs in that conversation.
Anything still uncertain needs attention in the review. The review needs to examine whether earlier treatment was possible, even when the answer isn't clear. Give records just as much attention when they leave the symptom start time unclear.
This is general information. It isn't legal advice for your situation. To find out whether there's a basis for pursuing a claim, you can ask for a case review. A review doesn't promise you compensation.
Common questions
What are the characteristics of a stroke?
What causes an ischemic stroke?
What are the treatment options for post-stroke pain?
How does stress affect stroke recovery?
What is the average life expectancy for a 65-year-old person after a stroke?
Sources
- Failure to Diagnose Stroke, MedMalNJ.com
- Can I Sue a Hospital for a Stroke Misdiagnosis?, Publisher not identified
- Stroke Misdiagnosis: Consequences When Seconds Count, Publisher not identified