I went to my physician for a physical in June of this year and had blood work done. I never received a call saying anything was wrong so I figured I had a clean bill of health. However, just two weeks ago I ended up in the hospital with ketoacidosis - SUPER high blood sugar. I have since been discharged from the hospital and placed on insulin and oral medication for Type 2 diabetes. I just asked for a copy of my blood work from June and see that my fasting blood sugar was 139 -which even as an untrained medical person, I know is high. Shouldn't my physician have caught this back in June? Do I have the right to sue? I think if it had been diagnosed in June I never would have ended up in the hospital for a week.
BeehiveHoney
Despite what doctors and insurance companies would have you believe, it's nearly impossible to win (or even bring) a malpractice suit. Unless the case involves the deaths of multiple patients or serious injuries such as permanent paralysis you'll have a hard time finding a lawer to accept the case.
Mr Placid
Presuming the doctor should have recognized this in June, AND presuming had he recognized it, you would never have ended up in the hospital, then, there is probably malpractice. But, even if malpractice existed, the MOST you will recover is your out-of-pocket expenses for the hospital stay, and perhaps lost wages for that week. It's simply not worth it.
Susie D
A singular elevated blood sugar of 139 does not a diagnosis of Diabetes make.
One blood sugar is not enough to make a diagnosis, and in the absence of other symptoms it wouldn't be enough to even require a follow-up. Unfortunately, diabetes is an insidious disease that people often confuse with other things and don't report the early symptoms to the doctors. For many people they produce just enough insulin to keep them symptom free or with mild symptoms they dismiss for awhile, but then the pancreas stops producing enough and they develop DKA and end up very ill. This isn't an uncommon path to first diagnosis of diabetes.
There really isn't enough information here to say whether the slightly elevated level should have been a red-flag, or simply read as a one time event.
verybizzy2000
The standard is first, whether the physician deviated from the medical standards of the community and second, whether the deviation was the substantial cause in your being hospitalized. Find another physician that says yours deviated from the standards, and you may have a case. In some states, you cannot file a malpractice action without a certification from an expert that, in their opinion, there was a deviation from the medical standards of the community.
However, think first about what your damages are. Most lawyers will not be interested in taking on a malpractice case worth less than $ 100,000 because there is the need for expert testimony, many hours of preparation, and they would be losing money in the long run as compared to if they charged by the hour.
Orignal From: Should I sue for malpractice?
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