Personal Injury Law

Illinois Doctor's Failure to Diagnose Leads to Skin Cancer Death

By Steven M. Levin and John J. Perconti

A trial began this week in southern Illinois involving a long-lasting medical malpractice lawsuit stemming from a doctor?s failure to diagnose skin cancer. The Madison-St. Clair Record is reporting on the trial which was originally filed in 2003 by Maria Storm and her husband against Dr. Patrick Zimmerman.

Ms. Storm visited Dr. Zimmerman in 2003 to have a lesion removed from her back in 1999. After removing the lesion, Dr. Zimmerman told Ms. Storm that her problem was all resolved and that she had nothing else to worry about. Four years later, however, it became clear that Maria did in fact have something to worry about. A different doctor discovered that Maria actually had skin cancer.

Upon learning of the cancer, Maria and her husband filed suit against Dr. Zimmerman for his failure to diagnose the skin cancer during her earlier visits with the doctor. Unfortunately, Maria endured two years of treatment only to succumb to the skin cancer in 2005, before the trial could officially begin.

Failure to diagnose is a serious issue with many patients. Even slight delays in catching medical problems can be the difference between life and death. Maria?s chances of beating her skin cancer would have been much higher if only Dr. Zimmerman had caught it four years earlier. Our Chicago medical malpractice attorneys at Levin & Perconti have fought legal battles exactly like this one. In one case, we won a record $14 million verdict against a doctor who misread x-rays leading to a failure to diagnose lung cancer. Our lawyers understand that when a patient visits a doctor, they deserve a certain standard of care to be provided, including the diagnoses of potentially life-threatening medical problems. Patients rely on their heath care provider?s expert medical advice, and they suffer the consequences of those medical mistakes.

Contact an experienced, reliable medical malpractice lawyer if you or someone you know was a similar victim of an expert?s failure to diagnose a serious medical problem.

Full post as published by Illinois Medical Malpractice Blog on July 22, 2010 (boomark / email).