Failure to Treat


Doctors and other medical professionals are highly trained and go through years of study and practice in order to be able to treat patients. You know that doctors are not infallible, but you trust in their expertise in being able to diagnose what is wrong and offer appropriate treatment when you are ill. If you visit your doctor and they fail to treat what is ailing you, and their failure to treat you causes injury, you may have grounds to take legal action against them and pursue compensation for your injuries.

If a doctor fails to treat a patient who has a medical condition, it can be considered medical malpractice if the failure was caused by negligence or a medical error. Here are some examples of negligence on the part of a physician who fails to treat a patient:

Failure to asses and monitor a patient’s condition
Failure to perform required medical tests
Failure to refer a patient to a specialist when necessary
Failure to treat a medical condition in a timely manner or at all
Failure to let the patient know about the available treatments for their condition
Failure to treat a patient due to lack of insurance or the wrong insurance
Failure to treat heart attack or stroke symptoms in the emergency department
Failure to adhere to accepted standards of care

In addition to all those examples of the failure to do something that might have prevented the patient’s injury, there is also the failure to communicate clearly the important facts about the patient’s condition.