For many people in Washington State, when they think about a medical error involving the failure to diagnose a condition, they think about diseases like cancer or heart disease. Certainly these conditions can go unidentified all too often but they are far from the only types of medical mistakes in which a physician did not appropriately diagnose a patient’s problem.
Drug addiction is a health condition that also requires proper diagnosis in order to provide proper treatment to people. As reported by Vulture, the family of a famous pop artist has initiated a lawsuit indicating that the artist’s drug addiction was not appropriately diagnosed.
The artist’s physician is one of the defendants in the lawsuit, but the suit also names a health care system, an individual hospital and a pharmacy as defendants. The case claims that the singer’s addiction to opioids was a contributing factor to his death more than two years ago. In the lawsuit, it is stated that the physician failed to follow what are identified appropriate medical procedures and did not appropriately diagnose the man’s addiction and therefore did not offer or suggest treatment for him.
It is not known what, if any, damages are being sought in the case and what the next steps will be but this lawsuit does highlight the complexity surrounding the need to provide patients with effective and timely diagnoses for any conditions they may be experiencing. People who are concerned about a lack of proper diagnosis might want to talk with an attorney in Washington State to see how they may protect their rights.