EP 78: Delayed Melanoma Diagnosis Dooms Patient - Or Does It? The Wonky World of Loss of Chance.

12/07/2022 28 min Episodio 80
EP 78: Delayed Melanoma Diagnosis Dooms Patient - Or Does It? The Wonky World of Loss of Chance.

Listen "EP 78: Delayed Melanoma Diagnosis Dooms Patient - Or Does It? The Wonky World of Loss of Chance."

Episode Synopsis

The patient/plaintiff was a 78-year-old man. Doctors identified and removed what they believed was a basal cell carcinoma on his arm. Turns out, it was melanoma. When the patient was eventually diagnosed with melanoma, the disease was advanced. The plaintiff's attorney argued that the initial misdiagnosis damaged his client's chances of survival. But did it? There's a legal theory called "loss of chance." The idea is that when a patient has a horrible prognosis, doctors aren't always liable for a bad outcome. But details matter. Here's what doctors need to know...

More episodes of the podcast Medical Liability Minute