Failure To Diagnose Breast Cancer Is Serious Medical Malpractice: It Can Also Be Fatal

Any type of cancer is a very dangerous diagnosis.  It is a condition that must be treated aggressively with radiation, chemotherapy, surgery, and other measures.  It cannot be allowed to grow and strengthen.  It cannot be allowed to get more difficult to treat.  And it absolutely cannot be given several years to grow and fester.  When it does, it becomes fatal.

That is what happened to the name before Lavern’s Law.  Lavern was misdiagnosed with breast cancer.  For years there was no treatment provided to her.  Unfortunately, the cancer was allowed to grow strong.  It started to spread to other parts of her body which caused serious health consequences.  When she went to the doctor to determine what was wrong, the doctors found that she had breast cancer more than 2 and a half years ago when she was misdiagnosed.  The breast cancer had spread to other parts of her body, and now it was likely fatal.

As a result, she suffered greatly.  She tried to commence a medical malpractice lawsuit but it was dismissed because she commenced it more than two and a half years after the negligence misdiagnosis.  This is the statute of limitations period, which requires a victim to commence the action within that time period.

Lavern had lost her case before she even knows she had one.

How is that fair?

It’s not!  That is why the Assembly and Senate in New York have passed a discovery rule which allows victims to have until the date of discovery of the breast cancer to commence the action.  This would have given Lavern her chance to have her medical bills, pain and suffering, therapy, living arrangements, lost wages, and lost earnings paid for.  Instead, she died without her day in court.

Now it is all up to be delivered to the governor.  But lobbyists for doctors and insurance companies don’t want it passed, and rather you lose a medical malpractice case because you even know you have one.